CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court’s vacation bench has directed the SP of Kendrapara to appear in person on May 12 over no progress in proceedings in the cases registered in connection with illegal operation of trawlers on Gahirmatha coast in the last 10 years. The vacation bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray issued the direction to the SP on Wednesday to appear in virtual mode on that day to explain why effective steps have not been taken in 12 cases registered since 2011.
The bench found that the 12 cases were registered against 10 different trawlers between November 2011 and December 2020. One Niranjan Mandal was named accused in nine of the cases. While he was acquitted in one case, no progress in proceedings was made in the rest eight cases.
As evident from the affidavit submitted by the SP, the two other accused named in three other cases belonged to the same family. Both were the son of Niranjan Mandal. No progress was made in the three cases registered against Manas Mandal and Makhan Mandal. In fact, Manas was acquitted in one case. The affidavit was filed in pursuance of a direction by the Court on April 27 to submit a report on the present status of all the cases registered since 2011 against the prime accused and his family members who were involved in the recent attack (March 15) on a patrolling boat on Gahirmatha coast.
The vacation bench also took note of Amicus Curiae Mohit Agarwal’s submission that even in the case arising out of the March 15, a case relating which had been registered at Talachua marine police station, the named accused had obtained protection from arrest in an anticipatory bail application filed in the High Court.
According to the report of the Amicus Curiae, on March 15, the patrolling team of Gahirmatha Wildlife Range and APR police personnel detected a fishing trawler in the sanctuary area. When the trawler was attempted to be intercepted, crew members of the trawler attacked the patrolling staff with sharp weapons.