Justice AS Naidu Commission holds a session in Cuttack on Sunday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Sept. 11: The Justice A.S. Naidu Commission appointed by the state government to probe into the alleged assault of a judicial magistrate by policemen in Rourkela today issued notices to two judicial officers to “file statements with regard to the incident in the shape of affidavit”.

“After scrutiny of the affidavits filed, this commission finds that the names of Niranjan Panda, civil judge (senior division), Rourkela, and Kailash Chandra Swain, the then additional chief judicial magistrate, Rourkela, have been referred to in some of the affidavits. It appears that the said two officers have some information with regard to the incident, which may be necessary for appreciating the facts,” Justice A.S. Naidu said in his order.

The commission expected the two judicial officers to file their respective affidavits by September 30. The incident involving judicial magistrate (first class) Arun Pattnaik and the local police took place on the night of April 2. The commission decided to start cross-examination of the persons who had filed their affidavits from October 22. It had so far received 41 affidavits and issued notices to 17 persons to face cross-examination.

Counsel of the Rourkela Bar Association Bibhu Prasad Tripathy filed a petition to call for records related to the claims made by Diptesh Kumar Pattnayak, the then Rourkela superintendent of police (SP), about his whereabouts during the alleged incident. “The petition would be heard on October 22,” the commission said in its order.

The state government submitted authenticated copies of the FIRs registered at Uditnagar police station in Rourkela along with case records registered in Panposh court.

Of the affidavits received, three were filed by Arun Pattnaik, his wife Subhasmita Satpathy and uncle Bijay Pattnaik. Among others, who had filed affidavits, included Diptesh Kumar Pattnayak (the then Rourkela SP), Ram Kumar Panda (the then additional Rourkela SP), Pramod Kumar Mohapatra (former additional district judge), Rourkela, Mohammad Ajmal (general secretary of the All Orissa Judicial Officers’ Association, who is additional district judge, Rourkela) and six members of the Rourkela Bar Association.

The state government had, through a notification on April 16, appointed the one-man commission to conduct an inquiry and submit within three months 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 government had fixed Cuttack as the headquarters of the commission, but left open for it to hold inquiry in Rourkela or elsewhere as may be necessary for the purpose of probe. The commission had held the second sitting in Rourkela as part of a spot visit.