Operation Blackspot: Portal chief to appear before Odisha Vigilance by Tuesday

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 7:

While Odisha Vigilance slapped a fresh notice (latka in local parlance) this evening at leaking.in web portal chief Ravi Sharma’s Madhusudan Nagar rented office-cum-residence here to appear before it tomorrow, Sharma told Kanak News that he would appear before the anti-corruption unit by Tuesday.

“I have already written to Vigilance that I am out of town on some work and would appear before it by Tuesday,” Sharma told Kanak News over the phone.

“I am not an absconder. I am fully ready to cooperate in the probe. I have done no wrong,” he added.

The Vigilance earlier on September 4 had slapped a notice at Sharma’s residence to appear before it.

Since Sharma didn’t appear before the Vigilance in response to its September 4 notice, the anti-corruption unit affixed a fresh notice yesterday evening at his residence to appear before it today by 11 AM.

However, since he didn’t turn up, the Vigilance affixed yet another fresh notice at his residence this evening asking him to appear at its office in Cuttack tomorrow.

Notably, leaking.in had conducted a sting operation in which four BJD MLAs— Susant Kumar Behera (Chhendipada), Seemarani Nayak (Hindol), Anam Nayak (Bhawanipatna) and Bijay Kumar Nayak (Karanjia)—were caught on camera seeking bribe from a decoy industrialist to help set up industries in their constituencies.

The expose was aired by Kanak News which according to political observers has severely dented the image of the ruling BJD forcing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to order a Vigilance inquiry to bring out the truth.

While the tainted legislators have denied that they had sought money from the decoy industrialist, they have admitted that they had discussed with him over setting up of industries in their constituencies.

What has baffled many is that the Vigilance which should have first questioned the MLAs is after the man who did the expose.

The members of the anti-corruption wing raided the web portal’s office on September 2 besides conducting raids on the house of a cameraman Saroj Kamila at Kamarda in Balasore district and Chandrasekharpur area here.

Three laptops, three hard drives, five pen drives and a recorder were seized during the raids.