Cuttack, Aug. 12: The one-member judicial inquiry commission of justice (retd) A.S. Naidu probing the alleged assault of a judicial magistrate in Rourkela by policemen completed its inquiry on Saturday.

“The arguments are over. Report shall be submitted in due course,” Justice A.S. Naidu said at the end of the 42nd sitting of the commission in Cuttack. The inquiry was started on August 20 last year. At around 11.30pm on the night of April 2, 2011, judicial magistrate first class Arun Pattnaik was allegedly assaulted by the local police.

The state government ordered a judicial probe and appointed the former judge of the Orissa High Court on April 16, 2011, to probe into the incident after there was a spate of protests by the legal fraternity in the state. The commission examined the terms of the reference — “an analysis of the sequence of events and circumstances leading to the incident along with the role, conduct and responsibility of the persons involved in it.”

According to official sources, the commission examined several persons, which included police officials, judicial officers, judicial magistrate first class Arun Pattnaik (the alleged victim of assault), Sadananda Pujahari (prime accused and erstwhile inspector in charge of Uditnagar police station), and Diptesh Pattnayak (the then S.P. Rourkela).

Most of them had filed affidavits and the veracity of their statements was put to test by way of cross-examination before the commission. In the process 47 persons were examined.

“With the concluding of arguments by counsels from both sides and other parties involved on Saturday, the commission completed the process of inquiry within a year,” said Bikram Kishore Nayak, counsel for the state government.

The arguments before the commission centred around the contention of judicial magistrate first class Arun Pattnaik that “Sadananda Pujari, inspector in charge of Uditnagar had forced him “by yanking” his shoulder and “slapped on his left cheek”. Later, he had “dragged” him to the police station.

However, Sadananda Pujahari denied having known the identity of Pattnaik when he brought him to the police station. “I did not forcibly bring him to the police station,” he said.