Bhubaneswar: Activists of BJP OBC Morcha today met Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan and urged him to take the necessary steps for conducting a fresh probe into the mysterious death of Panchayat Extension Officer (PEO) Smitarani Biswal in Odisha’s Jajpur district in 2019.

The activists led by Rakesh Nayak, Manas Ranjan Nayak, Kulamani Nayak and Nilamani Das met the Law Minister at his residence in the capital city and submitted a memorandum in this regard.

The Law Minister assured the BJP delegation of conducting a fresh and impartial probe into the death case.

Smitarani, the PEO of Haridaspur Gram Panchayat in Jajpur district, was found hanging in a private guest house in the locality under mysterious circumstances on October 16, 2019.

Rupesh Bhadra, the husband of then local Sarpanch, was the owner of the private guest house. However, the private guest house was demolished a few days after Smitarani’s death.

Smitarani’s husband had then alleged that she was murdered at the private guest house. 

The BJP, which was then the main Opposition party in Odisha, had raised the issue in the Assembly and sought an impartial probe into the incident.

Citing the postmortem report, the BJD government in the state had then claimed that Smitarani died by suicide.