A city court has summoned Union minister Pratap Sarangi, a senior RSS leader hailed as the “Modi of Odisha” for his austere lifestyle, on July 15 in connection with two criminal cases in which he is accused of hurting tribal sentiments.In one of the cases, the minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises and of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries is charged with burning a tribal idol in 2004 at his native village of Gopinathpur in Balasore district.
In the other, Sarangi is accused of making offensive remarks against tribal people during a confrontation in Nilagiri in 2011.Controversy has long surrounded Sarangi, a bachelor, who headed the state unit of the Bajrang Dal when Australian missionary Graham Staines and his young sons Phillip and Timothy were burnt alive in January 1999.