Nayagarh: Odisha Police have booked Nayagarh district collector Rabindra Nath Sahu for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 25 lakh from a laterite stone mine owner.
Three others were also booked for allegedly demanding money on behalf of the collector.
Sahu, however, rejected the allegation and claimed that the complainant lodged the FIR as he had tried to implement an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Thirty-five-year-old Sushant Kumar Barad, a resident of Champagada, lodged an FIR with Chandpur Police Station April 11 alleging that Sahu, along with three others, visited his mine located in Ranpur tehsil January 26 and demanded the bribe to provide concession in mine lease.
The three others named in the FIR are Dilip Kumar Samantaray, Deepak Kumar Routray and Ganeswar Mandhata, all locals from nearby villages.
Barad said he lodged the FIR with Chandpur Police Station and sought Nayagarh Superintendent of Police Alekha Chandra Pahi’s intervention after the local police station refused to register the case.
He later moved Orissa High Court for not getting cooperation from the local police station. The court ordered that the collector be booked.
Chandpur Police Station inspector-in-charge Mukesh Behera said a case under Sections 294 (obscene acts or words), 506 (criminal intimidation), 385 (causing fear or injury to commit extortion), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury) and 34 (criminal act done by several persons with common intention) of IPC was registered and further investigation is underway.
Dismissing the allegation, the collector said, “The NGT had slapped a fine of Rs 2.81 crore on the mining lease holder following a survey. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC were also clamped in the mining area. He lodged the FIR to divert attention from these. I never visited the spot January 26 as I was busy with Republic Day programmes.”
PTI
