‘Mentally unstable’ man arrested for bursting crackers inside Odisha court

Upendra Mohanty, 63, wanted his ‘protest’ to be loud and clear. The only problem was, he made it too loud. And that too inside a courtroom.

Upendra Mohanty, 63, wanted his ‘protest’ to be loud and clear. The only problem was, he made it too loud. And that too inside a courtroom.

Mohanty, who the police said seemed mentally unstable, was arrested in the Odisha capital on Monday for bursting fire-crackers inside a courtroom.

A self-proclaimed follower of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mohanty claimed he did not like the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the wall of the courtroom and wanted it replaced with one of the founder of the Azad Hind Fauz.

However, no one was injured as the incident took place during the lunch break inside the courtroom of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Mohanty hurled three firecrackers at the chair of the judge.

Hearing the noise, lawyers rushed to the room, overpowered Mohanty and handed him over to the police.

“He seems to be mentally unstable,” Bhubaneswar assistant commissioner of police DK Das said.

Mohanty had earlier hurled firecrackers at a judge in 1987.