Kendrapara, Aug. 8: As many as 86 government employees, against whom the administration had issued non-bailable warrants for allegedly skipping poll duty, still manage to dodge the penal action.
The employees were served non-bailable warrants on April 17, the day of polling. However, no legal action has yet been initiated.
Opposition parties are of the view that the law-breakers are being shielded as they have upheld the BJD’s interest in the last general election.
“The administration is adopting a ‘go-slow’ attitude over such a sensitive issue. Law is being bent. The episode lays bare the partisan handling of polling machinery in the district,” charged BJP district wing president Duryadhan Sahoo.
“Initially, 109 government employees were found to have skipped poll duty. However later during inquiry, it was found that 23 persons were ill forcing the rest to skip the duty. After verification, the non-bailable warrants were served against 86 employees. The list of offenders was sent to district police office for execution of the arrest warrants,” said Kendrapara sub-collector Pratap Chandra Mishra.
Kendrapara superintendent of police Rabi Narayan Behera said: “No impropriety has been committed by the law-enforcing agencies as far as dealing with the execution of the non-bailable warrants are concerned. The list of employees, who committed the offence, was dispatched to us a month after the election. The police promptly registered the case under Section 134 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 (Breaches of Official Duty in Connection with Elections).”
However, the problem is that the police are yet to receive supportive documents about the cases.
The case has failed to make any headway as the police are yet to be given documentary evidence to establish commission of offence by the accused government employees, Behera said.
“We have registered cases against the accused persons. But apart from the list of personnel, no other documents and papers have been given to us. The district election office has been asked through letters,” said investigating officer of Kendrapara police station S.N. Satapathy.
