Cuttack, Nov. 7: The Justice A.S. Naidu Commission today cross-examined erstwhile Uditnagar police station inspector in-charge Sadananda Pujahari, the prime accused in the alleged assault of a judicial magistrate by police in Rourkela on the night of April 2.

The alleged occurrence of the incident, involving first-class judicial magistrate Arun Pattnaik and the local police, took place around 11.30pm on April 2. Arun had alleged in an affidavit that Sadananda Pujahari, the inspector in-charge of Uditnagar police station, had forced him “by yanking” his shoulder and “slapped on his left cheek”. Later, Pujahari had allegedly “dragged” him to the police station.

However, in his statement of affidavit, Pujahari stated that while returning to the police station after patrolling along with home guard Shekh Abdul Kalim on a motorcycle around 11.20pm, he “found an unknown person was shouting loudly under the influence of liquor near an under-construction building by the side of a road leading from Ambedkar Chowk to Municipality Office Chowk and creating nuisance in public uttering obscene words.”

“When I tried to know the reason of such nuisance and asked him to stop, he abused me in obscene language and threatened me of dire consequences. We tried to calm him down and insisted him to go home since he was drunk and was unable to take care of himself. However, he continued to abuse us in obscene language. He was so drunk that he was falling down. So, I held on to him and managed to bring him to the police station with a view to send him to his residence in police vehicle,” the affidavit claimed.

During cross-examination, Pujahari, who is under suspension, denied having known the identity of the person when he was brought to the police station. “I did not forcibly bring him to the police station,” he claimed. He also claimed that he came to know the identity of the person as first-class judicial magistrate Arun Pattnaik from the superintendent of police when he narrated the incident to him over phone. He, however, admitted that he had not sought the police superintendent’s permission to lodge an FIR against Pattnaik.