BHUBANESWAR, OCT 6: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday stepped up its offensive against the Congress government in Orissa by demanding an independent inquiry to ascertain the genuineness of the affidavit filed by Jaydev Panda, a Congress activist. The affidavit highlighted chief minister JB Patnaik's alleged relationship with Panda's wife.Making this demand at a news conference here, the president of BYJD, Debi Mishra released the affidavit said to have been filed by Panda with annexures. The annexures contain letters and poems alleged to have been written by Panda's wife to the chief minister. The letters written by Jayanti Patnaik MP and wife of chief minister to the principal of a residential school at Madras asking him to allow Panda to meet his son, who is studying there, also formed part of the annexures.
Panda has denied having filed any such affidavit after its contents were published in a section of the press and threatened to file defamation suits against those dailies.
Mishra said that theprobe into this matter should be conducted by a sitting judge of the Orissa High Court. He said that since Panda's charges against the chief minister has tarnished the image of Orissa outside the state, the inquiry should be completed within a fixed time frame. People of the state have a right to know whether the chief minister is really involved or Panda is trying to blackmail him, he added.
Mishra demanded that the letters and poems allegedly written by Panda's wife to the chief minister should be sent to the forensic laboratory to ascertain whether the hand writing is that of Panda's wife.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.