Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Law will take its own course – is a dialogue that always emits from the lips of Chief Minister Navin Patnaik whenever the drama of his administration unveils a new scene of felony against our people.
The people have enough tolerated this idiotic dialogue because of their magnanimity. But they won’t any more.
He had no political experience when he was posted as Chief Minister by Biju’s discredited barrel-bearers, who, sans a mask, had no chance of entering into the power corridor in post-Biju Orissa. Therefore the phrase “Law will take its own course” was taken as his ploy to escape immediate responsibility pending action. But with passage of time, it was clear that he had no inclination to take any appropriate action against any illegality and he had developed the habit of saying “law will take its own course’ as a trick to cover up all illegalities.
It is a shame that he is unable to understand what the law says. Umpteen times, in these pages, we have shown instances of his inability to understand the laws; Ardhendu Sarangi’s case being the latest.
In my last discussion in this matter, I have shown how Sarangi obstructed medico-legal steps of the on-duty doctors of capital hospital in order to suppress the criminal offense perpetrated in the privacy of his residence. From tampering with the cuprous delicti to concealing the crime commissioned, every punishable aspect of his criminal conduct has been exposed therein.
The apprehension expressed therein that cultivation of a surrogate offender in exchange of money for saving their skins by the Sarangis might not be ruled out has almost come true as the man, arrested by Police, has disclosed how he succumbed to allurement of job and cash offered by the Sarangis in claiming responsibility for the offense he never committed. A TV channel report having carried this disclosure, local newspapers have made headlines thereon and though 3 days have elapsed, neither Sarangis nor the police have dared to deny it.
So, the Sarangis, particularly Ardhendu is guilty of concealment of the crime committed by him or any or all of his family, individually or collectively, in the guarded privacy of his residence on May 21, 2008 against life of class IV employee Ramesh Sethi, who was illegally pressed on domestic works. He is guilty further of keeping the crime concealed by cowing down on-duty doctors of capital hospital and for having intervened in discharge of their medico-legal duties. If the disclosure hinted to above is not incorrect, Sarangi is guilty of cultivating a surrogate offender to conceal the crime and to derail the legal investigation.
Chief Minister Navin Patnaik can save his own skin if he peruses the legal position discussed in these pages in this specific matter and, being the Police minister himself, initiate action against the Police Officer who has deliberately sloughed over Section 39 of Cr.P.C. and relevant sections of IPC as yet and collaborated with Sarangi in projecting a surrogate offender in an attempt to protect the real offender in this case.
During last eight years in power he has not been able to learn Oriya even when non-Oriya officers posted to Orissa are finding it easy to learn this beautiful language within two to three months of their posting. Therefore I have my doubts on his ability to learn. Whether or not he is able to learn the law in this case is a matter for him to prove for which it would be desirable on his part to discard the “law will take its own course” dialogue and act.