BARGARH: As the confrontation between Bharatiya Janata Party and Biju Janata Dal intensified a day after the tit-for-tat raids, police booked BJP’s Sundargarh MLA Kusum Tete for assaulting GST officials during their search operation on Monday. Two FIRs were registered in this connection with Padampur and Paikmal police stations.
The FIR registered at Paikmal named Tete and three others, while the complaint lodged with Padampur police was against Sunil Agarwal and 500 to 600 other people. The BJP legislator was accused of assault, abuse and obstruction of on-duty government servants. Apart from her, the FIR named Gobardhan Agrawal, his wife Taramani Devi and his son Nikhil.
Charges of molestation under Section 354 were also pressed in the two FIRs as one of the search party members was a woman officer. According to complainant Ashish Kumar Dash, a State Tax Officer of CT and GST Enforcement Unit in Jharsuguda, he along with a team had gone to the house of Gobardhan for a search as authorised by the Joint Commissioner (CT and GST), Enforcement Range, Sambalpur.
A spot summon was issued to Taramani Devi assuring her of the presence of a lady GST officer and constable throughout the raid. The complaint said Taramani Devi did not give written consent or sign any authorisation letter but offered verbal consent to begin the search. During the raid, the team managed to seize 22 documents.
While the search was underway, Gobardhan’s son along with a group of people including MLA Tete and her supporters allegedly barged into the premises and obstructed the operation. Gobardhan too appeared from the group and the crowd heckled the GST team and started abusing them.
Gobardhan had come under State GST raids on Monday hours after Income Tax officials searched three BJD associates in Padampur town. The complaint stated some miscreants forcibly took away the seized documents. Police reached the spot and rescued GST officials but the documents could not be recovered.
Tete, however, rubbished the charges and said she had gone there to ascertain whether the search party was genuine and asked them for ID cards. Besides, Taramani Devi is an aged woman and heart patient too but the officers did not allow her to contact her husband or son, she said. “I have not heckled or abused GST officials. Such hooliganism is done by BJD and not by our party,” she told The New Indian Express.
Contacted Paikmal IIC Susanta Badhe said an investigation has been launched on the basis of the complaint. Evidence including CCTV footage is being collected and police will be looking for eyewitnesses too.