Balasore: A case has been registered against former Congress MLA of Nilgiri, Chittaranjan Sarangi, following compliant of the local lady tehsildar.
Tehsildar Manorama Bhuyan said she was prevented to discharge her duty during an eviction drive. Besides, Sarangi assaulted her during the drive. He also allegedly instigated others to create chaos during the drive against encroachments undertaken on Grand Road leading to the Nilgiri Jagannath temple.
"Sarangi obstructed me from discharging my official duty when I was deployed as magistrate for removing encroachments on the roadside. He not only manhandled me, but also outraged my modesty with filthy language," said Bhuyan.
"I have lodged an FIR with the police after I encountered such ugly situation," she said.
Nilgiri police station inspector-in-charge Ramesh Singh said that acting on the compliant, Sarangi was apprehended after registration of a case under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 294 (obscene acts), 332 (causing hurt to deter public servant from his or her duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 354 (outraging modesty) of the Indian Penal Code. "He was detained at the police station till late Wednesday night and was let off after issuance of a notice under section 41 of CrPC. Sarangi was cautioned not to threaten the witnesses or tamper with the evidence," he said.
Sarangi was later sent to Nilgiri sub-divisional hospital after compliant of chest pain and body ache.
According to Bhuyan, the eviction drive was undertaken on Wednesday which was necessitated for road work. Sarangi had constructed a building encroaching on a land belonging to thakur mahal (endowment). The encroached area was about 3 decimals. Earlier, eviction notices had been served on him. He also lost the case in court when he challenged the notice.
"All the procedures were followed before executing the order of endowment commissioner. A portion of his building was raged. Along with this, 50 other encroachments were removed," said the tehsildar.
