Bhubaneswar (PTI): The issue of gunning down of VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati rocked Orissa assembly which was adjourned for an hour on Monday as members of coalition partner BJP stormed the well demanding immediate arrest of the guilty.

Raising the issue during question hour, BJP members trooped into the well to protest the killing of Laxmanananda and four others at Jalespeta in communally-sensitive Kandhamal district on Saturday.

Simultaneously, leader of the opposition J B Patnaik demanded immediate discussion on an adjournment motion on law and order problems in the state by suspending question hour.

The killing, he said, showed that crime situation had deteriorated in the state substantially.

As speaker Kishore Mohanty's repeated plea for normal proceedings went unheeded, the house was adjourned for an hour.

Earlier, obituary references were made to 76 persons, including former Rajya Sabha member and MLA Jagdish Jani and the security personnel and Greyhound Commanodos of Andhra Pradesh who were gunned down by Maoists in Balimela reservoir in Malkangiri.