Ink Thrown At Odisha Chief Minister's Private Secretary

A man threw ink at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's private secretary VK Pandian and Puri District Collector Samarth Verma in Satyabadi area on Saturday, police said. The incident took place while VK Pandian, a 2000 batch IAS officer also the 5T secretary was attending an event at Utkalmani Gopabandhu Smruti Mahavidyalaya in Satyabadi locality of Puri district.

The man who allegedly hurled ink at the IAS officers was identified as Bhaskar Sahoo, a resident of Haripur village under Kanas block in Satyabadi assembly segment area in the district. The police overpowered Sahoo and detained him.

Immediately after the ink attack, VK Pandian went on meeting people and received their grievances while wearing the white shirt sprinkled with ink. Earlier in the day, the 5T secretary visited several areas of Puri district.

Meanwhile, Satyabadi's BJD MLA Umakanta Samantray alleged that Sahoo was a BJP man and he threw ink targeting Pandian with political motive.

The BJP denied the allegations of Samantray and said that the saffron party does not believe in ink attack. "We oppose Pandian's visit and we do it openly giving prior notice. None of our party men is involved in today's ink attack," a senior BJP leader said.

The 5T secretary, who is undertaking tours across Odisha on the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to hear the grievances of the people, had earlier faced black flag protests and egg attack in different places.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)