Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Monday appeared in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) in connection with a case of violation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during the 2009- Assembly polls. Das appeared at the court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate GK Tiwari where his statement was recorded under CrPC Section 313 (power to examine the accused), his lawyers Nand Kishore Mishra and Devendra Singh said.
Besides the Chief Minister, two others, including, a party colleague, Chandrashekhar Mishra, former district BJP president, also appeared in the court where all the three deposed before the SDJM, GK Tiwari. The statement of Das and two others, who were accused in the violation of code of conduct, deposed their statement under CrPC Section 313. The court will pronounce its judgement on June 11.
Notably, Das who was a sitting MlA and was contesting for the Jamshedpur East Assembly constituency from BJP had fixed party flags on a party office at the premises of a temple in Sitaramdera. After the unauthorised party office had come to the notice of the administration, the then sub-divisional officer, Dhalbhum, Prabhat Kumar Kartik had lodged an FIR against the trio.
Das was the BJP candidate from the Jamshedpur East constituency and as the Sidhgora area falls under his jurisdiction, the SDO Kartik Prabhat implicated him and the then district president of the party Chandrashekhar in the case. After appearing before the court, the Chief Minister addressed the media and said that it was his duty to appear before the court as the case was pending pertaining to violation of election code of conduct. “I honour the court despite my busy schedule in decided to appear before the court,” said Das while replying to the queries by the reporters.
Chandrashekhar Mishra, who was the then district BJP president during the 2009 Assembly elections said court of SDJM asked them whether they had violated the code of conduct intentionally. “We gave our version and said that there were several enthusiastic party supporters who might have fixed the party flags on the temple premises without knowing the directives of the Election Commission. The court seemed to be satisfied with our reply,” said Mishra. He pointed out that the third accused in the case was Amar Kumar Sharma, who was not a party man, but was a member of the Shiv Mandir Management Committee in Sitaramdera where the party flags had been fixed, leading the administration to lodge the case against them.