BHUBANESWAR: A day after chief minister Naveen Patnaik ordered a vigilance probe into the alleged demand of bribe from industries purportedly by four ruling BJD MLAs, the anti-corruption wing of Odisha Police today constituted five teams to investigate the matter.
A private television channel had aired a sting operation on Monday allegedly showing the four BJD MLAs demanding money from a person posing as an industrialist to facilitate establishment of industries in their districts.
The BJP have filed a FIR in the capital police station against the four BJD MLAs and chief minister Naveen Patnaik and demanded that an independent team should be constituted to investigate into the matter.
The four BJD MLAs have also filed FIRs in this connection in the Kharavela Nagar police station demanding action against the persons who posed as industrialists and later tried to extort money from them by threatening to make the conversations public and the private TV channel which telecast the sting.
Vigilance Director RP Sharma today told mediapersons that five teams have been formed initially to probe the incident and each of the team has been given a specific job. "We have started the probe. If necessary, more teams will be formed," he said adding that a procedure will be finalised to reveal truth in the allegation.
Stating that the prime objective of the team is to conduct an impartial probe, Sharma said the Vigilance team will collect the audio and video clippings flashed in the media and send them for forensic test as it is required for the legal point of view to verify the authenticity of the tapes.
The four BJD law makers were allegedly demanding money from persons who posed as industrialists to facilitate setting up of industries in their respective constituencies in the unauthenticated clips of a purported sting operation aired in media.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement, four BJD MLAs - Susant Kumar Behera, Seemarani Nayak, Bijay Kumar Nayak and Anam Nayak, said that the vigilance probe would bring truth to the fore. The four MLAs alleged as they belong to Dalit and tribal communities, they have been trapped.