Odisha DGP Asked To Arrest Keonjhar Collector Ashish Thakare

Bhubaneswar: The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has issued an arrest warrant against Keonjhar Collector Ashish Thakare for repeatedly failing to appear for a hearing.

DGP Sunil Bansal has been asked to ‘arrest and bring’ him before the Commission in New Delhi.

According to reports, the collector did not appear before the Commission despite being summoned eight times. The Commission has also asked the DGP to apprise it about steps being taken in this regard by 11 am on April 13.

The collector earned the ire of the statutory body after he failed to appear for a hearing in Bhubaneswar on April 4.

The letter addressed to the DGP said that a notice was issued to the collector on March 23 to appear before the Commission at 4 pm on April 4 but he failed to do so, “absconds and keeps out of the way for the purpose of avoiding service of the summons”.

Thakare was summoned in a matter of non-payment of compensations and employment benefits to Dara Singh Khutia under land acquisition by the ISLF Ltd. The petitioner has been a resident of Lahanda village in Keonjhar district.

Invoking the powers of the civil court vested on it under clause (8) of Article 338 A, the Commission issued an arrest warrant Tuesday.