Bhubaneswar, March 18: The Assembly today witnessed an uproar over the reported police notice to Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bhanipati for his alleged link with former party MLA Ramesh Jena, who is in jail in connection with a string of criminal cases.

However, Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra later regretted the ruckus, saying that the Opposition's allegation was based on a "wrong report" appearing in a section of media (not The Telegraph).

The media report said Bahinipati had been summoned by police over his alleged links with Jena.

It was also earlier alleged that a criminal from Berhampur, an associate of Jena, had mentioned Bahinipati's MLA quarter address to obtain an identity card form a karate school.

The Congress stalled the proceedings over the issue by staging protest inside the House, forcing a series of adjournments. As soon as the House assembled this morning, Mishra said Bahinipati was summoned by the police to record his statement on his alleged links with Jena. "This is very unfortunate and an act of political vendetta. The government is terrorising the Opposition and trying to stifle its voice," he said, urging the Speaker to give protection of the member to attend the Assembly and take part in the discussion.

However, Speaker Niranjan Pujari did not listen to Mishra and proceeded with the Question Hour.

Angered by this, the Congress members rushed to the Well raising slogans and attempted to disrupt the proceedings by trying to climb on the Speaker's podium. Pujari adjourned the proceedings after three minutes for about 90 minutes. The House was adjourned several times in the afternoon till 5pm and no business could be transacted till then.

The BJD leaders, including chief whip Ananta Das, had also no definite information on the matter. Bahinipati was not present in the House with reports that he was away in his Assembly constituency Jeypore. Sources close to him said he had not received any notice.

Police commissioner Y.B. Khurania said: "No notice was issued by us to the legislator." IG (southern range) Amitav Thakur, under whose jurisdiction the allegations against Jena are being investigated, said: "We have not summoned Bahinipati to record his statement." Later in the evening, Mishra said neither the police had summoned Bahinipati, nor did he receive any notice. "We had come to know about this from a section of media. This confusion had happened due to communication gap. We regret this," he said.