By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 15, 2015 :

Former minister and senior BJP leader Jayanarayan Mishra was on Wednesday arrested for violating the prohibitory order clamped by the Sambalpur district administration to restrain the devotees not to display sharp weapons during celebration of Hanuman Jayanti on Tuesday.

He was remanded to judicial custody after the local Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) court rejected his bail application.

Tension ran high at the court premises as the supporters of the BJP leader shouted slogans against the Naveen Patnaik led government in the state alleging that it was using police personnel to “cow down” the BJP leaders.

Sambalpur superintendent of police (SP) Akhileswar Singh said the police had registered two FIRs against
Mishra at the Town Police Station and Dhanupalli police stations for wielding sword at the procession while violating the prohibitory order under section 144-A clamped by the district administration.
The BJP leader has been arrested by the Ainthapalli police, he added.

The BJP leader defended his action of wielding swords during the procession.

“We worship swords and other weapons during Durga Puja and Hanuman Jayanti. No one can stop us from doing this in a democratic country. I don’t care for the arrest. Police have arrested me to keep the ruling BJD happy,” Mr Mishra said in his reaction to the media.

According to reports, there were special rituals in all temples of the city on Tuesday morning. After the rituals, the devotees took out processions from several areas. The procession later reached the Hanuman temple at Brooks Hill.

After the rituals of the Lord, the devotees brought four swords from the temple. In the meantime, a youth handed over one of the swords to Mr Mishra. At this, some police officers, including the SP, tried to snatch the sword from Mr Mishra.

Enraged, Mr Mishra had a scuffle with the SP who fell down in the process.

The irate BJP leader later wielded the sword in the middle of the road for about five minutes as he was not permitted to do so inside the temple premises by the police.

Armed with the lathis and flags, several groups of devotees took out the procession from various places of the city and went round the city displaying martial art (akhada) on the main road.