Baripada, March 19: Karanjia MLA Bijay Naik has landed in trouble following allegations that he had furnished false information regarding his educational qualifications at the time of filing nomination papers during the last Assembly elections.

The complaint has been filed by Susanta Das, a resident of Rugudibeda of Thakurmunda, yesterday in the court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate of Karanjia.

Das’s counsel Debasis Behera said: “The court has admitted the case and directed the police to investigate the matter treating the report as an FIR. A case has subsequently been registered under cheating and forgery charges,” he said.

Inspector in charge of Karanjia police station Gourishankar Chakraborty, however, said: “I have not yet received any direction from the court regarding the matter.”

In the complaint, it has been mentioned that Naik, after passing high school examinations from the Government High School, Unit-I, Bhubaneswar, had taken admission in Plus Two classes in Karanjia College.

But, he could not complete Plus Two and after some years he again took admission in Bhanjakia C.P. College by producing forged college leaving certificate. Behera said: “He also mentioned in his affidavit that he completed graduation from Sukruli College in 1996. But no record of his passing out is found in that year.”

Naik, however, refuted the allegations and said that it was a conspiracy hatched by his opponents in the BJD.