Subhechcha Ganguly 
Odisha’s minister of Health and Family Welfare Naba Kishore Das was shot dead by a policeman on 29th January, 2023 in Brajaraj Nagar, a tiny industrial town in western part of the state. As the FIR filed by Brajaraj Nagar Police station said, Gopal Das, the assistant sub inspector of police who was in charge of traffic clearance duty during the visit of the minister opened fire with a clear intention to kill the minister. The injured minister was airlifted to Apollo Hospital, Bhubaneswar where he was declared dead late evening on the same day.
Naba Das was one of the most influential politicians from Western Odisha began his political career with Congress party. He was first elected to Odisha Assembly from Jharsuguda in 2009 as a Congress member and got re-elected in 2014 and 2019. Before 2019 general election he switched over to Biju Janata Dal and subsequently joined Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet as a cabinet minister. Besides his political dominance, He had significant clout in the mining and industrial activities of Jharsuguda.
What was the intention of ASI Gopal Das to kill the minister is a million Dollar question. It is said that the cop was no way directly working under the minister or had any personal animosity. Within an hour or so after the murder, most of the Odia television channels started airing an interview of the wife of the killer cop who claimed that her husband was mentally ill and under psychiatric treatment. Before the police investigation begins, a strong narrative was set that, Gopal Das had bipolar disorder and his killing of Naba Das is an act of insanity. The timing and design of the narrative makes the story deeply suspicious.
In the meanwhile a month and half had passed but the investigating agency is yet to say a word on the motive of this high profile murder. Nobody knows how the investigation goes, but there are dozens of political theories and thrilling stories playing around making the unfortunate event a high voltage political drama.
Casting deep suspicion on the police investigation veteran Congress leader Narasingh Mishra said that “the murder seems to be like a well planned one. By branding the killer cop mentally instable, police is trying hide the real intention and the culprit”. Later Shri Mishra brought a different angle to the story and claimed that a relative of the murderer cop was involved in this case. Later he withdrew his comments by claiming the lack of evidences. Similar charges have come from the leader of the opposition Jai Narayan Mishra. The leader of the Opposition going a little far from the usual theory and straight blamed BJD for the murder. In a stinging rebuttal BJD dismissed the charges of the LOP and told him to be “mentally instable”.
The Crime Branch investigation is led by high profile cop Arun Bothra and monitored by retired High Court justice JP Das has yielded no result yet and that makes the story deeply suspicious and keeps the political pot boiling.
