Rashmi Rekha Das

Kujang police have registered forgery cases against local Block Development Officer (BDO)Soumyashree Panigrahi and Paradipgada sarpanch Sasmita Behera on charges of forging documents during panchayat polls nomination filing.

Acting on a court’s order, Kujanga police registered a case against the duo under IPC Sections 465,466, 471, 171-G and 34. 

According to sources, Sasmita had not signed in the affidavit during submission of her nomination papers for the sarpanch election.  

A person named Mihir Kumar Patra came to know about the forgery through Right to Information (RTI) Act. He got to see her signature after he sought clarification from Sarpanch through RTI.  Mihir knocked the door of court to look into the issue following which police registered a case against BDO and sarpanch. 

On the other hand, Paradipgada sarpanch refuted such claims.

Gatikrishna Satpathy, lawyer of the complainant said, “The affidavit filed by Paradipgada sarpanch under Kujang block had no signature. The affidavit was invalid as deponent’s signature was missing.  Challenging it, when my client sought affidavit papers for verification, Sasmita’s signature was present in the document. Sasmita made it possible because of the BDO. Without BDO’s help, it was not possible to make changes in the affidavit.”

Paradipgada sarpanch Sasmita terming the allegations made against her baseless, said, “I had submitted three sets of affidavit papers out of which one signature is missing mistakenly. Had I made forgery in the documents, I would have failed to file my nomination papers and contest the election. As I have won with a huge margin, opponents are jealous of me."

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