Government Chief Whip in the State Assembly Pravat Tripathy on Friday filed two separate cases against former Congress MlA of Banki Debasis Patnaik at Bhubaneswar Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) court in connection with an audio CD containing purported conversations between the AT group chief and two unidentified persons which was telecast in a private television channel a few days ago.
“The public utterance of Patnaik that the voice in the audio CD was of mine had tarnished my image. Hence, I filed a damage suit against him bearing case number 976/13 and also a criminal case bearing 1CC/3860/2013,” said Tripathy.
Seeking criminal proceedings against Patnaik, Tripathy alleged in his petition that Patnaik had uttered defamatory remarks against him in public without verifying the fact.
Sources said Tripathy has filed the damage suit of more than Rs 5 lakh against Patnaik.
Meanwhile, Banki Biju Yuva Janata Dal on Friday staged a protest rally in front of the Sub-Collector’s office and burnt the effigies of Patnaik and PCC president Jayadev Jena for their remarks on Tripathy.