Poll funding: HC posts final hearing on recall plea to July 27 as BJP moves SEC

Cuttack: The final hearing on the recall petition filed by Ganjam collector in Orissa High Court with regard to alleged poll fund irregularities by BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik will be held on July 27.
“In its short hearing today, the court gave us time to reply on the petition. While arguing in favour of state government, the Advocate General appealed to the court not to entertain the root petition as petitioner didn’t not belong to the chief minister’s constituency,” SC lawyer Narender Hooda, who is representing complainant Subhas Mohapatra.
Citing that the notice issued by the court to Election Commission of India was wrong, the collector had appealed to it to withdraw its order. “All the details related to polls are destroyed after one year. Therefore, asking for the details after two years of completion of the elections is not acceptable,” the collector stated.
Hooda said a case generally begins from the day when a fraud is detected. “When a disappeared murder accused is identified five years after the crime, it doesn’t mean that action would not be initiated against him,” he added.
Meanwhile, the state unit of BJP intensified it attack on BJP over alleged discrepancies in its election expenditure data by approaching State Election Commission (SEC) and demanding that the assembly membership of the BJD supremo be scrapped.
A delegation of the saffron party under the leadership of state Vice-President Sameer Mohanty, submitted a memorandum in this regard to the SEC.
The BJP leaders had met the Income Tax Commissioner on Monday, seeking a thorough inquiry into the alleged irregularities. The ruling BJD, on the other hand, had threatened to move court against some leaders of the state BJP and a particular English news channel, which had aired a report ‘#NaveenHawalaGhotala’.