(Reproduced
from the Times of India May 19, 2008 pg 12)
Spl courts to
try corrupt netas, babus
Orissa Judges Can Now Seize Property Of
The Tainted
Rajaram Satapathy | TNN
Bhubaneswar: For the first time in
Orissa, politicians and senior bureaucrats with
ill-gotten money will stand trial in courts
exclusively created for them. Two special vigilance
courts which will take up such cases became
operational on Saturday in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
Two officers to the
rank of additional district judge were appointed and
given power order to ‘‘confiscate property
and money’’ of the accused even before the
court can take cognizance of the charges against
them. The vigilance department, to begin with, has
forwarded 18 disproportionate asset cases to the
courts. Among them are some IAS and IFS officials.
They are Sanjib Kumar Ray, Ramesh Chandra Behera,
Arunadaya Swain (all IAS), Amaresh Kumar Jaiswal,
Subhranshu Sekhar Padhi (both IFS), Nikunja Kishore
Parija, Kali Charan Mohapatra (both IPS). Corruption
cases against some of them had been registered about
20 years ago.
For the time
being, no case against any politician had
been forwarded to the courts.
‘‘There are cases involving
politicians. Since they are in advance stage
of trial in other vigilance courts, we did
not send them to the special
courts,’’ director-cum-additional
DG, vigilance department, Anup Kumar Patnaik
said. An official said 77 cases had been
identified for trial in the courts and out of
these, the government approved 18, the
official said.
The special courts
have been formed under the Orissa Special Courts Act,
2006 which received Presidential assent on September
19 last year. Sensing that corruption germinates in
the top echelons of the administration, the former
Biju Patnaik government (1990-1995) had formulated a
legislation for trial of politicians and senior
bureaucrats.
But after coming to
power in 1995, the J B Patnaik-headed Congress
government scrapped the law and transferred all the
cases, some of which involving many Congress leaders,
to general vigilance courts.
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