Cuttack, Nov. 8: The controversy over the role of the superintendent of police, Rourkela, after the alleged assault of a judicial magistrate has taken a new turn with the Justice A.S. Naidu Commission directing the state government to “procure” the records relating to his whereabouts at the time of the incident.

The alleged incident, involving first class judicial magistrate Arun Pattnaik and the local police, took place around 11.30 on the night of April 2.

The Orissa government had appointed the one-man commission headed by the retired judge of the high court to conduct an inquiry and submit a report with “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”.

The commission issued the direction on a petition filed before it to call for records corroborating the police superintendent’s whereabouts at the time of the incident.

Muralidhar Parija, a member of Rourkela Bar Association, had filed the petition contending that the “commission is required to have first-hand information relating to the presence or otherwise of the then police superintendent on the date of incident in Rourkela”.

“In the interest of justice, the leave application, the headquarter leaving permission granted to him and the concerned person who was in-charge of the police superintendent’s responsibilities in Rourkela at the time of the alleged incident is required to be produced for effective inquiry and to ascertain the truth,” the petition said.

“Acting on it, the commission yesterday directed the state counsel to take instructions from the government and procure the documents mentioned in the petition if there is no impediment, and fixed November 26 for order on it,” Rourkela Bar Association’s counsel Bibhu Prasad Tripathy told The Telegraph.

Diptesh Kumar Pattnayak (the then Rourkela police superintendent now on leave) had in his affidavit filed before the commission stated: “Since March 6, 2011, I have been suffering from painful anal fissures and have been experiencing acute and excruciating pain and spasms. I was first medically examined by Dr J.M. Rao at Kar Clinic and Hospitals in Bhubaneswar on March 8. Dr Rao asked me to come again on March 29 for further examination. On examination on March 29, Dr Rao found the anal area in acute inflammation and hence prescribed stronger medicines and asked me to come on April 3 morning for examination.”

“Accordingly, I reached Bhubaneswar by 9.30pm on April 2, 2011,” Pattnayak claimed.

Controversy had sparked off when the Rourkela Bar Association contested the claims in its petition and alleged that the then police superintendent of Rourkela “in order to avoid his responsibility, had stated that he was on leave and therefore had no role in the alleged incident”.