Cuttack, May 15: Orissa High Court has accepted a letter petition filed by members of the Cuttack Mahanagar Nagar Committee seeking a CBI probe into the alleged embezzlement of cyclone relief materials after Phailin had struck the city in 2013.

Last week, Sakya Singh Mishra and five others filed the petition under the committee's banner, alleging that though the state vigilance had registered a case on pilferage of the relief materials, it made little headway in the past one-and-a-half years.

The court has served petition copies through the state counsel to the director-general of police, inspector general vigilance, Cuttack collector and secretaries of the home, revenue and the urban development departments to file their response in the matter.

Acting on the petition, the single-judge bench of Justice A.K. Rath has posted the matter to after eight weeks for hearing on the necessity of a CBI probe along with response from the state authorities. Justice Rath, while issuing the order on Monday, also asked the state counsel to serve a copy of the petition to CBI counsel V. Narasingh.

The scam surfaced after it was alleged that some of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation councillors had pilfered relief materials meant for distribution among the people affected by Phailin on October 12 and 13 in 2013.

On October 21, 2013, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had ordered a vigilance probe to ascertain the allegations.

On the same day, the then civic body commissioner, Nihar Ranjan Mohapatra, was transferred and the then deputy commissioner, J.M. Kujur, was suspended, while the BJD expelled its Cuttack unit president Madhusudan Sahu, a councillor, for allegedly encouraging party workers to take the cyclone relief materials from the corporation office between October 13 and 14.

On December 9, 2013, the state vigilance had registered cases against four corporation officials in connection with the alleged relief loot scam.

Apart from Mishra and Kujur, the cases had been also against the then deputy secretary, Nirmal Nayak, and the then recovery officer, Bijay Das, for violating the relief code under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, the letter petition said.