Bhubaneswar: The Ethics Committee of Odisha Assembly on Tuesday began the process of its investigation into the allegations on Congress legislator Naba Kishore Das watching objectionable video clip in the House during the winter session last year.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, chairperson of the Ethics Committee and BJD MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain said the meeting reviewed the report submitted by the Assembly Speaker to the Committee.
“All the committee members have been asked to give their opinion on the report of the Speaker,” he added.
Talking to the mediapersons, Committee member and Congress MLA Prakash Behera said the Committee will have another round of meeting in the next week and will discuss the matter after going through the written opinion of the committee members.
Another Committee member and BJD MLA Amar Prasad Satpathy said the Committee, in course of its investigation, would review the CCTV footage of the State Assembly and the video footage of the local news TV channels.
A letter from the Odisha Assembly Secretariat, a copy of which is in possession of OTV, has been issued to the Committee members in this regard.
“The modalities of investigation will be fixed if the obscene video case is tabled for discussion. Points such as the mode of investigation, deposition of the parties involved, witnesses (if any) etc. will be discussed in presence of the members,” BJD chief whip Anant Das had told the media yesterday.
It may be mentioned that Speaker Niranjan Pujari had suspended Das from the State Assembly for a week on December 14 last year on the charge of watching objectionable clips on his mobile phone in the House.
The Speaker announced suspension of Das after a motion brought by government chief whip Ananta Prasad Das was passed in the House by voice vote during the zero hour.
BJD member Pramila Mallik, who had raised the issue, demanded that Das should be expelled from the House as his action had lowered the dignity of the Assembly.