BHUBANESWAR: The Khurda District Court on Wednesday dismissed a revision petition against former chief minister Naveen Patnaik and his then principal secretary VK Pandian, alleging an illegal expenditure of Rs 500 crore in 300 helicopter trips around the state.
District and Sessions Judge Biranchi Narayan Mohanty observed that the petitioner Sudhir Charan Mohanty did not file a single piece of evidence to prima facie establish any cognisable offence and involvement of the opposite parties in them.
Rejecting the petition as devoid of any merit, the Judge said, “This court does not find any illegality committed by the SDJM, Bhubaneswar, to arrive at a conclusion that allegations made in the complaint petition are not only omnibus in nature, but also not supported by any substantive material to arrive at a prima facie conclusion that the accused persons have, in fact, committed any criminal offence.”
The order said that the petitioner neither made out any case under any of the penal sections referred to in the complaint petition with supported materials nor adhered to the mandatory compliance of Section 173(4) of BNSS, 2023 before presenting the complaint nor he had got any locus-standi to present the complaint in terms of Section 33 of BNSS, 2023.
Mohanty had lodged a complaint against the former chief minister and his close aide and ex-bureaucrat Pandian at the Capital police station here in 2024, alleging that they made helicopter tours using government funds without official sanction. When no FIR was registered, he lodged a complaint at the DCP office and later moved the SDJM’s court.
However, the SDJM had dismissed the matter on the ground that no cognisable case could be made out.