Poor turnout in Odisha capital for deposition in SUM Hosp fire case

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Dec 1:

Only eight out of 35 witnesses summoned by the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central Range) appeared before the Commission of Inquiry to probe into the SUM Hospital tragedy and recorded their depositions.

Khordha Collector Niranjan Sahu, CDMO, ADMO, DMET and ADMET, Joint Director DMET recorded their statements before the Commission today.

A total of 35 witnesses including the aforementioned and The SUM Hospital promoter Manoj Ranjan Nayak were served with summons to appear before the Commission.

Similarly, on the second day of recording of statement of witnesses at Cuttack on Wednesday only five out of 21 summoned had appeared before the Commission.

According to people in the know of things, several of those who had submitted affidavits have expressed their unwillingness to record their statements as witnesses.

However, RDC (Central Range) A B Ota has said that people unwilling to record their statements will be provided with another chance to do so.

“We have recorded depositions of eight persons today,” said Ota speaking to reporters here today.

Ota however, declined to reveal the content of the depositions claiming that it was of sensitive nature.

“I cannot share with you the content of the deliberations because this in an inquiry into a very sensitive issue. Maintaining secrecy is my duty. You can know the findings of the inquiry only after the report is out,” said Ota to reporters when asked about the content of today’s depositions.

It may be mentioned here that the state government had directed the RDC to probe into the worst-ever fire tragedy in the state that took place on October 17 and has claimed 31 lives so far.

The state government had invited affidavits from witnesses in this regard. As many as 393 affidavits were received by it.