Odisha sex video: chief secretary to appear in SC on Friday

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Apr 9:

Odisha chief secretary GC Pati will appear in person in the Supreme Court tomorrow in connection with the case related to posting of rape videos on social media and WhatsApp.

On March 20, the Supreme Court had directed Odisha chief secretary to be present in the court on April 10 for the failure of the state government in responding to the notice issued by the court in connection with the rape video case now being probed by the CBI on its directions.

“Something is wrong with Odisha,” the social justice bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit had observed when counsel for the state did not respond when called by the court on March 20.

While directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the rape video sent to Chief Justice of India (CJI) H.L. Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala in a pen drive along with a letter on February 27, the apex court had issued notices to the central, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana and Delhi governments in the matter.

The court had also imposed a Rs.50,000 fine on Odisha government after it failed to respond to the notice issued by the court and depute a counsel to represent it in the court during the previous hearing of the case on March 13. Odisha  earned the ire of the court for its repeat act of not being present in the court through its counsel when the case was called out for hearing on March 20.

The court’s March 13 order had said: “We must express our anguish that in spite of the notice, there is no appearance on behalf of the state of Odisha despite the fact that the case is of considerable importance. Due to non-appearance on behalf of the state of Odisha, we impose cost of Rs.50, 000 to be paid by the state of Odisha to the petitioner within one week from today.”

The CBI, it may be noted, has arrested a builder Subrat Sahu alias Kalia and his associate Bunty from here and is on the lookout for two more persons in this case who are Sahu’s lawyer and driver. Sahu had allegedly indulged in sexual act with his receptionist and had filmed it on a mobile phone camera. Later he had released video clippings of the sexual act on WhatsApp and the social media.