Odisha: BJD alleges Baijayant Panda of running 'malicious conspiracy' through TV channel

Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has accused the opposition BJP of running a "malicious conspiracy" to demotivate COVID Warriors and COVID Hospitals in the state through Baijayant Panda-owned OTV Channel.

In a statement, the BJD alleged that on August 6, Odisha TV or OTV telecasted a malicious, false and misleading telephonic conversation between two anonymous persons, who were later traced by Police to be the company's employee — Laxmikanta Behera and his relative Biswajit Mohanty — and booked on charges of criminal conspiracy and other laws.

The main focus of this malicious telephonic conversations was that – “Rupees 1.5 lakhs to 2.5 lakhs is being given by Central Government for treatment of each COVID patient and the same is being misappropriated by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and Private Hospitals namely, Hitech, KIMS & SUM, apart from the Health Department. Further, that a target of obtaining 100 COVID patients per day has been given to Hitech, KIMS and SUM Hospitals respectively. Even people who are not tested positive for COVID are being sent to Hitech, KIMS and SUM Hospitals and other Hospitals so that target given to the BMC Officers is filled up.”

BJD said the intention behind this telephonic conversation was "to discourage people from coming forward for COVID testing, create mistrust in people towards COVID test results and destroy confidence of people in COVID Hospitals and its treatment".

The party also posed five questions in relation to the case: 1) If it was a private conversation between two people, why was it televised; Was the authenticity of the claims made in the conversation verified; Were the views of SUM, KIMS & Hitech Hospitals mentioned in the conversation taken by OTV; Why did OTV delete the televised Video on their Youtube Channel? Why did it hide the evidence; Why is OTV asking for more time to appear before the Police in this investigation, why is it not cooperating; Why is Panda taking refuge in social media and deflect attention on this issue?

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'Using OTV to settle political scores'

The Naveen Patnaik-led party claimed that Baijayant Panda is angry with the BJD for having expelled him in 2018 due to his "anti-party activities" and his subsequent defeat in 2019 Lok Sabha Polls from Kendrapada.

"Using OTV to settle his political scores against the BJD Government during COVID pandemic is unfortunate. When thousands and lakhs of COVID warriors are out protecting people of Odisha, this malicious behavior by OTV backed by Mr. Panda is like salt to injury. Its hoped better sense prevails with Mr.Panda in the coming days," it stated.

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