"Law will take its course"

“Law will take its own course”, so says Naveen Patnaik, parrot like, once more and he expects the public to be gullible enough to be deceived again.

His brush with the rhetoric of law taking its own course began possibly with the most unfortunate Anjana Mishra Rape Case. Naveen Patnaik, then a Central Minister, promptly visited the victim’s home and committed to fight for justice. He demanded C.B.I. investigation to unravel the conspiracy and for law to take its course to punish the guilty. Let me mention some important dates. The incident took place on 9 January 1999. Naveen Patnaik made the public statement on 12 January 1999. The Congress Government, he accused of shielding the accused, arrested two of the three accused persons Pradeep Sahu and Dhirendra Mohanty on 26 January 1999. The investigation of the case was handed over to the C.B.I. on 26 February 1999. The NDA was in power at the centre and Naveen Patnaik was a part of the Central Government when C.B.I. investigated the crime and submitted charge sheet on 5 May 1999. Naveen Patnaik took full advantage of the unfortunate and horrific crime during the election campaign. Even the victim campaigned for the party publicly. But, Naveen Patnaik’s commitment for doing justice to the victim ended once he had benefited from the incident and come to power. After 13 years in office the third accused Biban Biswal has still not been arrested. He could have given this task to his Police Force and held them accountable if they failed to deliver. But, he is unconcerned. Public memory is short and he has squeezed as much as he could have by politicizing a heinous of crime.

Mr Naveen Patnaik’s rhetoric of ‘law taking its course’ now falls into a pattern. He is not interested in rule of law as much as he is interested in his public image. So, Ministers can be dropped as soon as allegations are leveled, then the investigative process stage-managed so that the same person can be rehabilitated with a Ministerial berth as soon as the original incident fades away from public memory. So, allegations have been made against 32 ministers and they have resigned. But, not in a single instance anyone has been arrested or prosecuted with any seriousness. Let us take some examples.

Raghunath Mohanty: resigned as Minister, but not arrested till date. The investigation was taken away from the local police because the lady S.P. of Balasore would not show any favour to Mr. Mohanty. Now the ex-Minister has done a vanishing act under the nose of the police, if we are gullible enough to believe, as Raghu Mohanty desperately tries to manage a bail failing which Naveen Patnaik can hope to make him surrender. Is there anyone who believes that the delay in arrest of Raghunath Mohanty would be possible, if Naveen Patnaik had asked the cops to effect arrest? So much for law taking its course.

The speed at which the Barsa Swony Choudhury case was handed over to the HRPC reminded me of an incident in my area in 2003. One Manas Ram was killed in the official residence of the Irrigation Executive Engineer at Salapada. The Executive Engineer was a witness and he had given a statement to the local police that the assailants of Manas Ram were accompanied by the son of then local MLA and now a Minister in the Naveen Patnaik Government Sri Badrinarayan Patra. As in the Barsha Swony case Mr. Naveen Patnaik quickly realised that the S.P. of the district, who was a young IPS Officer like the present S.P. Balasore, will not oblige the ruling party with any favour. So, within 24 hours the case was handed over to the Crime Branch. The Crime Branch did not arrest the accused, but ultimately on the direction of the court the MLA’s son surrendered and was sent to jail. But, the Crime Branch left gaping loopholes in the investigation and as a result all the accused were acquitted honourably though the court passed strictures against the Crime Branch investigation. This is precisely what Mr. Naveen Patnaik wanted and his wishes were fulfilled by the Crime Branch. No action has been taken against the Crime Branch officers. I feel the Barsa Swony case will meet the same fate. The HRPC will not arrest Raghu babu, allow him to surrender. But, then the investigation will be compromised and finally the prosecution will fail to give justice to the victim.

I have the highest regard for senior BJD leader Dr. Damodar Rout, but find his case quite curious. He was made to resign and then re-inducted into the cabinet while the case “Damodar Rout vrs State” remains under examination of the High Court. The Police under Naveen Patnaik found him guilty and submitted a charge sheet to stand trial. If C.B.I. had investigated then the BJD could have called the investigation partisan. In a criminal case ‘State’ is a party or in other words it is a case brought to court by the Government and strangely Dr. Rout is a part of the Government. Mr. Naveen Patnaik sees ‘no conflict of interest’ and no contradiction in Dr. Rout remaining as a Minister of the Government. So, it becomes Damodar Rout (State) vrs Damodar Rout (Defendant). If Mr. Patnaik has no trust in the investigation carried out by his Police, he should ask the Public Prosecutor to move an application to withdraw the case. But, if he stands by the prosecution he should not have inducted Dr. Rout into the council of Ministers. But, why this farce? How can he bring a case to court against a person and then make him a Minister.

For a while Bijayashree Routray was under hibernation, accused of corruption in the World Bank aided health Sector Project. He is now back as a Minister. Pramilla Mallick resigned over the Dal scam, but the investigation like in the case of Bijayshree Routray found nothing against her. She may be brought back as a Minister when it is politically convenient and the public has forgotten. I am not surprised that the State Vigilance found no evidence against Sri Badrinarayan Patra in the coal allotment case and now the Crime Branch has found nothing against the Higher Education Minister in the leakage of plus two question paper.  Another interesting case is the case of Minister Arun Sahu. His name was taken in the Chabi Bardhan suspicious death case. But, investigation found no evidence against Arun Sahu. Now one of the witnesses in Chabi Bardhan case by the name Basanta Dakua has also been killed in suspicious circumstances. This time also nothing will be found by the so called ‘law will take its own course regime’. Mr Arun Sahu belongs to Nayagarh district and is a key BJD leader of the district. As is well known the district has witnessed violent attacks against Congress leaders. Gurubari Kahanar, Block Chairman, Fatehpur has been killed. Prafulla Mohanty, ex-sarpanch, Baunsapada panchayat, Nayagarh Block has been killed. We hoped that Mr. Naveen Patnaik will truly follow raj dharma and order the police to book the perpetrators of the crime. We hoped he will let the law take its course. Nayagarh district is not isolated when it comes to BJD resorting to violence against its opponents.

If Naveen Patnaik is to be believed none of his Ministers minus Kamala Das have had anything to do with any allegation of corruption or wrongdoing. Investigations have all given them a clean chit and they have been re-inducted as soon as the public forgot the exact reason why they had to resign and so long as they remain loyal. In fact, the allegation would be used to make a Damocles’ sword hang till such time that the person has fully surrendered to his political might. Naveen Patnaik’s actions have a well calibrated pattern. He waits to see the extent of public outcry, tries to protect the accused, if possible without resignation, failing which they are asked to go for a while so that he can manage a clean chit from his investigators and public mood is no longer hostile. So, unsurprisingly no Minister has been prosecuted and merely asked to resign and the only Minister who has been charge sheeted, i.e., Dr. Damodar Rout has been given a long rope to somehow stall the criminal trial as long as possible as strangely he continues as a Minister of the Government (State), which is supposed to be prosecuting him at the same time. Why was Dr. Rout asked to resign and why was he inducted back? For Naveen Patnaik rule of law is a matter of convenience.

As politicians we have been all responsible for creating a rather fragile regime of ‘rule of law’ in the country and people are losing faith. In the Ramayana even God Rama asked his wife to pass the ‘fire test’. When allegations were made about my involvement in the mining scam I asked the State Government to order a C.B.I. investigation. In any case the State Government’s own machinery has been investigating the mining scam for the last three years and they have found nothing against me. Let Mr. Naveen Patnaik accept my challenge and order a CBI probe. But, the State Government wants to investigate allegations against itself and the result has been a foregone conclusion. The time has come for people to question the way Naveen Patnaik has been mocking at the rule of law with the rhetoric ‘law will take its own course’. With Naveen Patnaik as CM, law will appear to be taking its course for a while to hoodwink the public, albeit without arrests and while providing maximum opportunity to his colleagues to get a reprieve from the courts, but ultimately rule of law will be subverted. Unsurprisingly, as per the records of the National crime Records Bureau Naveen Patnaik’s Government has the lowest rate of conviction in the country among states and much below the national average. I was happy that Naveen Patnaik has admitted this statistics to be true in the floor of the Assembly, though he continues to say ‘law will take its own course, ad nauseum….. In the mean while Sri Raghunath Mohanty, BJD Vice President, can remain a fugitive from law.