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Congress seeks action against former collector

Correspondent

Alleges the officer has delayed in filing complain case against Dey

CUTTACK: The Cuttack City Congress Committee has submitted a memorandum to the Chief Secretary to initiate criminal proceedings against former Cuttack collector Deoranjan Singh for his alleged role in causing delay in filing complain case against the city BJP legislator Samir Dey, Cabinet Minister in BJD-BJP alliance government.

Memo submitted

Submitting a memorandum through the central division revenue commissioner recently, the City Congress committee has alleged that Singh as the district election officer had `deliberately delayed' in filing a complain case at the appropriate court against Mr. Dey for submitting a false affidavit at the time of filing his nomination paper during 2004 Assembly elections.

Although, three criminal cases were pending against the BJP leader at the time of filing his nomination, Mr. Dey did not mention anything about them in the affidavit he submitted along with his nomination papers. The Election Commissioner of India as well as the State Chief Electoral Officer conducted an enquiry into the charge and found that the Minister had actually filed a false affidavit. The EC had asked the district election officer to take legal action the Minister, as there were prima facie evidences against him.

"But, the then district collector did not act upon the EC directive immediately. Even as a case was filed against Mr. Dey at the sub-divisional judicial magistrate court, the court did not take cognisance of any offence against the Minister as the case was filed after the stipulated time," alleged City Congress general secretary Sashibhusan Das. He also said that the EC had also directed the State Chief Secretary to initiate action against the Cuttack district election officers for their "negligence" in filing the case against Mr. Dey at an appropriate time.

The Congress also alleged that although, the EC had asked the district election officer to engage an impartial private advocate to conduct the case against the Minister, the district authorities relied upon the district public prosecutor who miserably failed in conducting the case properly.

Urging the Chief Secretary to take immediate criminal proceedings against the former Cuttack collector, the Opposition party has threatened to launch mass agitation if their demands were not fulfilled soon.

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