Odisha Cong writes to Speaker, seeks return of items stolen from them inside House

Bhubaneswar, Sep 18 (PTI) In an interesting development in the Odisha Assembly, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader on Thursday urged the Speaker to ensure return of certain items allegedly stolen from them by anti-social elements during a dharna inside the House in March.

In that month, Congress MLAs staged a round-the-clock dharna in the well of the House, demanding the formation of a House Committee to probe into the alleged rising crimes against women in the state.

Gold chains, watches, sunglasses and even clothes of the Congress legislators were stolen, CLP leader Rama Chandra Kadam claimed in the letter to the Speaker Surama Padhy.

During that session of the Assembly, all Congress MLAs, including the CLP leader, were suspended from the House for their “unruly” behavior.

“I would like to draw your kind attention to the incident that happened on 26-03-2025 at around 2.30 AM inside the House and what action has been taken so far regarding entry of anti-social elements and theft of gold chain, watch, goggles, pant, shirt and other belongings of the members of our Congress Legislature Party,” Kadam’s letter to the Speaker read.

The CLP leader also requested Padhy to take steps without further delay to recover the stolen belongings.

Kadam said that though they had earlier drawn the attention of the Speaker, the MLAs were yet to get back their belongings, forcing him to write a letter.

They had alleged that the anti-social persons had entered into the Assembly premises at night and even obstructed the way of an MLA who was going to the washroom. One of the MLAs had also claimed that he was injured in the fingers as a security man slammed a door on his hand. PTI AAM NN