Bhubaneswar, June 27: Over one hundred journalists on Thursday held a protest rally in front of the Odisha state secretariat and demanded "stringent action" against senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and former minister Raghunandan Das for his alleged attempt to launch a murderous attack on a lady journalist with his dogs.

The scribes also submitted a memorandum to the chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi seeking his intervention to give justice to the journalist.

On June 26, Raghunandan let loose his two “ferocious dogs” ostensibly to attack lady journalist Chinmayee Sahoo of Argus News television channel when she was covering live the dismantling of illegal structures built in the government quarters of BJD’s powerful leader Pranab Prakash Das.

“Raghunandan Das is a very senior leader of the BJD. He was also the minister of information and public relations department which deals with journalists. His behavior was completely unbecoming. The ghastly act of letting loose the dogs to attack journalist Chinmayee Sahoo is highly condemnable. The former minister should tender an apology and appropriate action should be taken against him by the police,” said senior journalist Rabi Das.

Rajaram Satapathy and Prasanna Mohanty, two other senior journalists, also demanded stringent action against the former minister.

“We strongly condemn the heinous attempt made by former minister Raghunandan Das to cause harm to the lady journalist. Scribes across the state, including Bhubaneswar, today protested his ghastly act. We demand strong legal actions against him. He must be booked under appropriate laws,” said Satapathy and Mohanty.

The journalists later submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi seeking actions against the ex-minister.

Editors of different newspapers, TV news channels, senior journalists like Manoranjan Mishra, Sandeep Mishra, Birupakshya Tripathy, Bipin Singh, Sanjaya Jena, Laxminarayan Kanungo, Shanti Bhusan Mishra, Durga Shis, Ranjan Tripathy, Swadhin Rout, Sarada Lahangir, Kasturi Ray, Minati Singh, Nilima Priyadarshini, Bhagabat Tripathy, Sangita Agrawal, Ramesh Mohanty, Pramod Samantaray, Akshaya Sahoo, Ramchandi Ranapratap Singh, Parthasarathi Jena, Pramod Samantaray, Birupkashya Tripathy, Suresh Kar, Sanjay Das, Sukant Mohanty and many others joined the protest rally.

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