Satisfied that prima facie a contempt case is made out against the State Government, the Odisha High Court on Wednesday asked the Government to file its reply in an affidavit within two weeks in response to a petition filed by social activist and animal lover Sanjib Das.
Das, in his contempt petition against former Madhupatna police station Inspector Ranjit Prusty, has alleged that he was arrested by Prusty in July 2008 in contravention of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court. Moreover, in order to cover his blunders, the police officer also made an interpolation of the case diary maintained by another police station.
Justice MM Das of the HC had earlier observed that there had been an interpolation of case diary at the Chandrasekharpur police station of Bhubaneswar. The HC had also asked the Bhubaneswar DCP to conduct an inquiry and take appropriate action against the police officer involved and take action against him as per law.
However, when the Bhubaneswar police informed the HC that it was not possible to identify the culprit, Justice Das asked the Government to file a reply to the contempt petition.
Das, heading the People for Animals, had informed the Madhupatna PS on July 26, 2008 that a lorry was dangerously transporting cattle, following which the then local Inspector Prusty seized the vehicle but allowed its driver Zulfikar Ali to escape.
However, on receiving a complaint from Ali, Prusty immediately arrested Das and forwarded him to court. Objecting to his arrest, Das approached the HC complaining that his arrest was not made in accordance with the guidelines set by the Supreme Court. He said his arrest in the night was not intimated to his family members staying at Chandrasekharpur in Bhubaneswar in proper format as was required.
The Bhubaneswar police, however, submitted two different station diaries of the incident having same number and date. While former IIC of the PS Asim Panda submitted an affidavit with the station diary, the present IIC of the PS RN Satapathy, who is a batch-mate of Prusty, submitted another station diary which was different from the previous one.