The Orissa High Court on Thursday imposed a fine of `5,000 on Sundargarh Congress MlA Jogesh Kumar Singh for being unable to produce his witness in the court for examination in the two election petitions pending against him.
Despite repeated HC notices when the MlA failed to comply with them, Justice BN Rath imposed the fine of `2,500 for each case.
The May 2014 election of the Congress MlA was challenged by local BJD leader Kusum Tete. The BJD leader had lost to Singh by a margin of 2,584 votes in the election. Similarly, another voter of the segment, Ajay Patel, too challenged Singh’s election.