Odishatv Bureau
Cuttack: Justice A S Naidu Commission of Inquiry, probing into the unsavory incident of a brawl between a judicial magistrate and police in Rourkela, has negated the prayer of Rourkela Bar Association (RBA) that had sought to withdraw from participating in the panel`s proceedings.

Stating that they are at the fag end of inquiry and seeking cooperation from all those who had filed affidavits before it, the commission in its order on Saturday directed R C Bal and S C Majhi, advocates of Rourkela and A K Das to appear before them here on May 5 for their deposition and face cross-examinations.

In the meantime, Odisha government filed an affidavit before the Commission in response to a petition filed by RBA and repudiated the allegation made in it with reference to the promotion of the then Rourkela SP Deeptesh Patnayak.

The government in its affidavit said Patnayak has not been promoted to the rank of DIG as alleged in the RBA petition.

"It is not true that the government has promoted Deeptesh Patnayak," the government affidavit said adding the assertion in the RBA petition is "incorrect".

"Similarly, the assertions in the petition that the government has no trust on the findings of the Commission are presumptions," the affidavit said urging the commission to reject the petition of RBA as it was not maintainable.

RBA had earlier sought permission of the Commission to withdraw from participating in the proceedings of the panel alleging that state government had no trust on findings of the commission since it had in the meantime promoted Patnayak, who had been asked to go on leave immediately after the incident which occurred on the night of April 2, 2011.

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