BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Police on Monday filed a case against three men for allegedly circulating fake and misleading information about the security cover of CM Naveen Patnaik’s aide and BJD leader V K Pandian.
The case at Bhubaneswar’s Saheed Nagar police station came days after BJP moved election authorities seeking withdrawal of Pandian’s “unnecessary security benefits”.
Prakash Das, Srikant Pakal and Pradip Pradhan had cited the information to claim that Pandian’s squad of 74 personnel outstripped even Z+ cover of 55 guards. According to the cops, the three shared a letter with journalists at a news conference here recently, claiming they had received it through RTI from Bhubaneswar police. The undated letter, which carried the logo of the police commissionerate, mentioned Pandian’s “74” police personnel.
DCP Prateek Singh disowned the letter, calling it “forged and fabricated”. “A case has been registered (against the three) under IPC sections, including those of cheating and forgery, as well as the Information Technology Act on the basis of a complaint by our reserve inspector. Investigation is in progress,” Singh told TOI.
Police sources, however, confirmed that Prakash sought information through RTI on the exact number of cops allotted to Pandian. Though the police supplied the information to Prakash, the letter shown by him at the news conference was fake, the sources claimed.
Prakash denied the allegations. “I collected the information (letter) by hand from the reserve inspector. We did not commit any cheating and forgery,” he said.
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