Covid-positive Odisha MLA booked for attending funeral

A BJD MLA from Odisha's Puri has been booked for neglecting the Covid protocol. The leader had tested positive but attended the funeral of party leader Pradeep Maharathy.

Puri: A case was filed against BJD MLA Umakanta Samantray after he attended the funeral of party leader Pradeep Maharathy despite testing positive for COVID- 19, police said on Saturday.

The case was registered at the Sea Beach Police Station in Puri on Friday night under IPC sections 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act.

However, no case was registered against the party's Nimapara MLA and School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash who was also accused of attending Maharathy's funeral on October 4, violating the COVID-19 guidelines.

Jagannath Sena, a local outfit, had lodged a complaint against Dash and Samantray, alleging that they attended the funeral despite testing COVID-positive.

However, Puri's Superintendent of Police Akhileswar Singh said that the minister had attended the funeral after remaining in quarantine for 17 days.

Therefore, no case has been registered against him, Singh said.

Jagannath Sena claimed that both Dash and Samantray were found to be COVID-positive at the camp held for mandatory testing at the assembly premises on September 27 ahead of the Monsoon session.

Samantray, the MLA from Satyabadi, apologised for the violation. In a video message, he said he committed a mistake by attending Maharathy's funeral.

He said he had rushed to the funeral out of emotion because of his relation with Maharathy.

Samantray had tweeted on September 28, informing about his coronavirus infection.

PTI Report