Odisha minister files FIR,seeks probe into fax from his office

Following the suggestion of State Election Commission, Odisha's steel and mines minister R K Singh today filed an FIR to probe into the faxing of a party document to the District Collector of Angul from his office.
Singh, who had been accused of violating model code of conduct for the September 19 urban polls in the state, in his FIR said he was not aware about the party document being faxed from his office.
Singh also claimed that some one not known to him might have faxed the document from his office.
The minister's private secretary Pradip Kumar Mohapatra lodged the complaint at the Capital Police Station here on behalf of Singh.

Earlier, the SEC had suggested the minister to file an FIR at the police station if he was not aware about the faxing of a party document from his office.
"We will take steps accordingly after getting report from the police," State Election Commissioner Ajit Kumar Tripathy said.

The opposition Congress and BJP, on the other hand demanded resignation of Singh accusing him of misusing the minister's office for the purpose of urban elections.
Both the parties have hit the streets demanding his ouster from the council of ministers.
The district collector's office at Angul received a document from the steel and mines minister's office last month. The document contained a list of probable names of the BJD candidates for the Angul notified area council elections.

Meanwhile, the state government has transfered Angul collector Aravind Agarwal and suspended his assistant on charge of misuse of the collector's office for the party purpose.