The shocking suicide of a physically challenged youth Dusmant Das near the Odisha Assembly on Wednesday has turned murkier with the mother of the deceased, Basanti Das lodging a police complaint saying her son was called to Bhubaneswar and instigated to attempt suicide.

The needle of suspicion now rests on who had conspired or planned it all ostensibly to defame the government. Last year at least three instances of attempts to suicide near the Assembly during the session had occurred and in one of the cases, there was a political motive.

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In all three cases, the persons concerned were rescued. But unfortunately, on Wednesday Dusmant Das died by slashing his wrist and consuming poison.

Meanwhile, the BJP which had jumped into action by promptly sending a fact-finding team to Mantipada village, the native of the deceased, staged a road blockade and demanded a CBI probe today held a press conference to allege collapse of the health care system and how the much-trumpeted Biju Sawasthya Kalyan Yojana card (free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh) had failed since private hospitals refused to admit Dusmant Das.

The Naveen Patnaik government has rejected the Ayushman Bharat scheme of the centre since 2018 and claimed that BSKY is much better, but the said incident exposes the narrow political mind of the state government is refusing to implement Ayushman Bharat lest the centre takes credit, charged BJP leader and former minister Manmohan Samal.

But the official version of SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack is that Dusmant had met with an accident in March 2020 and was admitted to the hospital.

The surgery had been conducted free of cost under the BSKY scheme. He then wanted to be referred to AIIMS Bhubaneswar and it was done.

The Congress has however steered carefully on the incident and targeted the police and intelligence wing for its failure to prevent such a ghastly act near the Assembly which was under the ‘so-called three-layer security’ during the monsoon session.

Amidst the entire political hullabaloo, the FIR by Basanti Das has thrown up several questions as to who had called her son to Bhubaneswar and who provided him with poison.

Dusmant slashed his wrist with a sharp object and consumed poison, he was handicapped and could not have done so on his own, said the mother of the deceased while urging for proper investigation.

In a related development, the BJD MLA of Paradip, Sambit Routray announced that he will adopt the minor daughter of Dusmant and help the family as a ‘humanitarian measure’ since the village comes under his assembly constituency.