BHUBANESWAR: The State Election Commission on Friday ordered a Crime Branch inquiry into the alleged seizure of elections materials from a vehicle belonging to the State Legislative Assembly.

The inquiry will be conducted by the Crime Branch under the direct supervision of a Deputy Inspector General, the Commission said in an official release.

The Commission ordered the inquiry after receiving reports of the preliminary investigation conducted by the Election Observer of Puri district and District Collector of Puri.

Media reports

Taking note of the media reports, the Election Commission had earlier asked the Election Observer and the Collector of the district to investigate into the allegations that the vehicle in question was carrying election publicity materials of the ruling Biju Janata Dal on the instructions of Assembly Speaker Maheswar Mohanty.

The vehicle carrying election materials was intercepted by Congress workers under Chandanpur police station area on February 6 and subsequently three cases had been registered by the police.

After registration of the cases, the Congress had urged the Election Commission to take appropriate action in the matter as the use of the Assembly vehicles was in violation of the model code of conduct that was in force for the ensuing three-tier panchayat polls.

Suspension of officials Meanwhile, the Election Commission ordered suspension of Fakir Chandra Das, Block Development Officer of Salepur in Cuttack district, and Panchayat Extension Officer of Salepur Panigrahi Raghunath Das for committing irregularities in their election duty.

The two officers had allegedly rejected the nomination papers of two candidates for the sarpanch post of Mirzapur gram panchayat and declared the third candidate elected unopposed.

The Commission also ordered suspension of Bijay Kumar Mishra, Block Development Officer of Agalpur in Bolangir district, for committing irregularities in preparation of the electoral rolls. Mr. Mishra had not taken any steps to correct the anomalies even after the matter was brought to his notice.

While ordering for the suspension of the three officials, the Commission also asked the government initiate departmental action against them for dereliction in duty.

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