The 109 non-bailable warrants (NBWs) that were supposed to be issued and executed against many polling officials who skipped duty on the voting day on April 17 have been shelved by the administration in the politically volatile Kendrapada district for reasons difficult to fathom.
What makes the administration dither over the issuance and execution of NBWs gives rise to suspicion in public mind. As many as 54 of these 109 errant officials were posted for duty at the sensitive Mahakalpada Assembly constituency where senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra was grappling with both the BJD and a hostile administration which was allegedly keen on his defeat at the ruling party’s instance.
On the polling day, district Collector Nitin B Jawale had announced that he had recommended issuance of NBWs against the 54 officials who skipped their duties in the constituency. later in the evening, he added 55 more names to the list.Surprisingly, seven days later, the Superintendent of Police of the district said he has not received any such instructions with regards to the issue of NBWs from the Collector. “Police are yet to be communicated the order. The arrest warrants would be executed with due process of law once we receive the list,” said SP Rabi Narayan Behera.
When asked about the delay in carrying out disciplinary action against the polling officials, the Collector came up with an explanation that the list would be dispatched to the police after the scheduled re-poll in a booth in the Ali Assembly constituency is over.People suspect that the announcement made by the administration about NBWs being issued against 109 polling official was an eyewash designed to suppress the truth about how the poll process was conducted in Mahakalpada.
Reports say the 54 polling officials who were absent on the polling day were physically present and available to their reporting officers on both April 16 and 17. In fact, some of them say they were mighty surprised when they came to know of NBWs against them from newspaper reports.
This makes the entire issue murky and mysterious and calls for a high-level probe by senior officials from other States deputed by the Election Commission of India, said a senior Kendrapada lawyer known to be a sympathiser of the Congress.“We suspect the administration is scared of taking action against the polling officials because they will spill the beans and expose the nasty and illegal role played by them in the elections. They think they will get away with it because people forget things too quickly. But we would not let that happen,” he said.