Bhubaneswar, Nov. 10: A leading social activist and an acolyte of Anna Hazare, Bhabani Shankar Parija today lodged a police complaint against law minister Bikram Keshari Arukh for allegedly taking two houses from the Bhubaneswar Development Authority under discretionary quota by submitting a false affidavit.

He also urged the police to include the name of chief minister Naveen Patnaik in the complaint alleging that the latter was well aware of illegal allotment made in favour of Arukh, but did not act against him. He made a similar plea for registering a case against higher education minister Badri Naryan Patra, who had allotted the house to Arukh while he was the minister for housing and urban development.

Parija said while seeking allotment of a BDA house under discretionary quota, Arukh intentionally omitted mentioning the fact that a core house had already been allotted in favour of his wife Jayalaxmi by the BDA under the same quota. This house was allotted when BJP legislature party leader K.V. Singh Deo was the urban development minister.

According to the law, if a person has a piece of land or house within the BDA area in his or his immediate family members’ name, then a second plot or house cannot be allotted to him. But this norm was violated in the case of Arukh.

Parija said: “Before allotting any land or house out of discretionary quota, the minister in-charge of urban development is duty bound to verify if requirement of law has been complied with by the applicant. Patra intentionally allotted a constructed house in favour of Arukh fully knowing that previously there was an allotment in favour of Arukhs’s wife. Patra could have easily known, had he asked his office to verify the truth of the contents of the application of Arukh.”