House Committee To Probe Abhijit Iyer Mitra’s Derogatory Remarks

Bhubaneswar: Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat on Thursday approved formation of a House Committee to probe the derogatory remarks by Abhijit Iyer Mitra on Odisha and Lord Jagannath.

The Committee to be led by the Leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra as the chairperson will have Debi Prasad Mishra, KV Singhdeo, Pramila Mallick, Arun Sahu and Sanjay Dasburma as members.

The Committee will submit its report on the first day of the next session of the State Assembly.

The formation of the House Committee was decided at the all-party meeting convened by the Speaker after the members cutting across the party lines had vehemently protested and criticised the outrageous statement of Abhijit on Odisha, Lord Jagannath and the Chief Minister during the privilege motion moved by the Congress.

Taking note of the resentment among the members over the issue, the Speaker had cancelled the Question Hour session and ordered a discussion on this issue.

Meanwhile, the police have detained Abhijit at the Nijamuddin Police station in New Delhi and started interrogation on his outrageous statements posted on social media. In a tweet, Abhijit’s friend Arati Tikoo Singh said that he is being detained by the Odisha Police without any arrest warrant.

It may be mentioned here that Abhijit and Arati had gone on an aerial tour with the former Kendrapara MP Baijanant Panda in his private helicopter recently.