Bhubaneswar, Dec 29 (IANS) A Biju Janata Dal (BJD) worker was arrested Wednesday allegedly for disrespecting the national flag at a party function here Sunday, police said.
Acting on three complaints, the city police arrested Janakar Sahu under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, inspector Rabindranath Satpathy told IANS.
Sahu allegedly brought with him to the party function a national flag that was used in 1997 to cover the mortal remains of late Biju Patnaik, chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s father who was himself a chief minister and a stalwart of the country’s freedom movement, before his last rites.
The trouble for sahu arose after the flag was displayed in public by the chief minister and many senior ruling party leaders during the BJD’s foundation day function here Sunday.
The flag bore on it an image of a conch shell – the party’s symbol – and also had Biju Janata Dal inscribed on it. The Ashok Chakra was missing from the flag.
The opposition parties demanded action against those involved in the matter and have sought public apology from the chief minister for being a party to such dishonour to the tricolour.
