Real estate dispute behind attack on Odisha minister Maheswar Mohanty?

In what is being billed as the first attack on a sitting cabinet minister in the state, two unknown assailants pumped three bullets into Odisha’s minister for Law, Tourism and Culture Maheswar Mohanty while he was returning home on a two-wheeler in Puri, his home town, around 9.30 pm on Friday. The minister was rushed to the Puri district hospital from where he was brought to the Kalinga Hospital in Bhubaneswar. His condition is stated to be ‘stable’ and ‘out of danger’. One bullet, which got lodged in his chest, has now been removed, but he will remain under observation for ‘at least 48 hours more’ in the intensive care unit (ICU), a hospital spokesperson said this afternoon. [caption id=“attachment_1404045” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Maheshwar Mohanty. Ibnlive[/caption] The Director General of Police (DGP), who rushed to Puri this morning, has said police have got some vital clues which he hoped would lead to the arrest of the culprits soon. He, however, was tight lipped about the motive for the attack. The DGP’s visit followed after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik visited the hospital and asked the police to arrest the culprits at the earliest. Sources in Puri police revealed that two youths have been detained and are being interrogated in case with the attack on Mohanty last night. With elections round the corner, it is tempting to see the attack on the minister as a fall out of some political rivalry. But reliable sources have told Firstpost that the attack had to do with a dispute over real estate. The murderous assault was masterminded by a builder, who had apparently been ‘fixed’ with a false case by the minister after a dispute over a land deal, the sources said. Mohanty, who has been elected to the Assembly four times in a row since 1995, is known to have substantial stakes in the burgeoning real estate business in the tourist town of Puri. His son runs a construction company, ‘Swan Regal’ that has several ongoing housing projects worth several crores along the Puri-Bhubaneswar road. As Chairman of the Puri Municipality, he faced serious charges of illegal land allocation to several hotel projects in the town in gross violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Act. Nor is he a stranger to controversies of the unsavoury kind. On 31 March, 2008 he was forced to tender his resignation from the post of Speaker of the Assembly after a suspended lady assistant marshal, Gayatri Panda, levelled charges of sexual harassment against him. “If shooting incidents have become commonplace in the hitherto tranquil pilgrim town of Puri today, Maheswar Mohanty must take the major part of the blame,” said a Puri resident who has followed the minister from close quarters right from his days in student politics. The four-time MLA has several criminal cases pending against him. He was also widely suspected to have had a role in the killing of Guna Singhari, a Jagannath Temple servitor, in 2012. But he has managed to remain unscathed due to his political clout, said the man who did not want to be named. Mohanty was back in the Naveen Patnaik cabinet in May, 2011 before he was cleared in the sexual harassment case. About two years ago, he was attacked with an iron rode by the father of a rape and murder victim who accused him of shielding the perpetrators while addressing a public meeting in Chandanpur. While Mohanty survived because of the timely intervention of a supporter which reduced the impact of the attack substantially, he did sustain serious head injuries. With such a dubious past, it is hardly surprising that Mohanty had made several enemies, one of whom is suspected to be behind the murderous attack on him. But given the record of investigation into past cases against him, it is doubtful if the truth about the assault on him would ever come out in the open.