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Court sends appellant to jail

Correspondent

Takes exception to fictitious persons appearing before tribunal

CUTTACK: Expressing concern that fictitious persons were appearing before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) and siphoning huge amount from nationalised insurance companies, the Orissa High Court on Friday sent an appellant to police custody straightway from the courtroom.

T. Ashok Kumar, a bus operator who approached the court challenging a MACT judgment landed himself in police custody. The incident took place in the court of A.S. Naidu on Friday. A native of Ganjam district, he was sent to the Lalbagh police station, which in turn handed over him to Kharavela Nagar police station in Bhubaneswar where an arrest warrant had been pending against him for the last four years.

The Puri MACT, in the year 2000, awarded a compensation of Rs. 1.6 lakhs to some claimants who were victims of a road accident in 1993. Since the vehicle involved in the accident was not insured, the liability of paying compensation was fixed on the owner.

When the compensation was not paid, the claimants moved the tribunal and a `certificate case' was initiated in the court of special certificate officer (SCE), Bhubaneswar, in 2001. In the case, one person claiming himself as T. Ashok Kumar Patra of the Kharavela Nagar area initially appeared as the owner of the offending vehicle but latter remained underground. The SEC issued an arrest warrant against Patra in January 2003. But the Kharavela Nagar PS returned the warrant saying Patra was not staying in the given address. The SEC, in June 2003, passed an order requesting the Bhubaneswar SP to trace the debtor. Interestingly, while the court was hearing the appeal against the MACT judgment, it came to its notice that the `vakalatanama' filed in the MACT case was purportedly signed by Patra and an advocate was engaged. But when Patra told that he never signed it and did not engage any lawyer, the Bench took the matter very seriously.

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