Bhubaneswar: Expressing confidence that those behind the killing of senior VHP leader Laxamananda Sarswati and the subsequent violence that rocked Orissa will be brought to justice, the government on Tuesday rejected demands for a CBI probe into the string of events.
"I repeat there is a crime branch investigation being carried out into the incident. And also a judicial inquiry into the matter," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters here hours after AICC General Secretary Ajay Maken demanded a CBI probe into it.
The government, he said, was making all efforts to see that peace and calm returned to Kandhamal district and elsewhere in the state and the crime branch of Orissa police was successfully investigating the matter.
Maken, also Congress in-charge of Orissa, had alleged that Patnaik lacked control over the administration in checking communal riots and had demanded a CBI inquiry as "there were many unanswered questions in the entire episode".
Earlier, some Christian organisations and Bishop of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Raphael Cheenath had made a similar demand.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil during his visit to the state in the wake of the communal violence in Kandhamal and elsewhere after Saraswatis killing had said the Centre was not averse to investigation into the incidents by CBI.
However, either the state government or the court had to recommend it.
Asked about claims made by a Maoist outfit that it had killed Saraswati, the Chief Minister said the crime branch was also looking into that aspect.
"As the crime branch is investigating into the matter, let us wait for its finding," he said, adding the state government will also like to wait for the report of the judicial probe into the entire incident.
Patnaiks cabinet colleague from BJP Manmohan Samal also rejected the demand for an investigation by CBI.
"I do not believe that a CBI probe is the best. I can show some cases which could not be properly dealt by the agency," he told reporters citing the fodder scam in Bihar as an example.
Samal also rejected the apprehension that judicial probe could delay the process of booking the culprits.
