By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: With Naveen Patnaik led BJD Government through both the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and Commissionerate of Police tightening the nose of OTV Network and Police have arrested 2 persons , terming them as Ortel employee, a subsidiary of the TV channel, for the alleged video clip that went viral in social media exposing the irregularities in COVID-19 management in the State, the BJP National VP-Spokesperson, Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, whose family runs the said TV Channel, was on Monday claimed that some IAS officers allegedly involved in COVID-19 scam and irregularities are avoiding summons of Lokpal.
“Odisha police have arrested two young men who shared their phone chat online. Their “crime”? One of them allegedly tested Covid +ve & spoke of his experiences in hospital, including apparently fake “treatment” at huge government cost. This is just the latest of massive Corona related corruption scams in Odisha, allegedly of ₹ hundreds of crores. It has also been reported that senior IAS officers summoned by the Lokpal in these matters are refusing to appear. Will #FoE activists speak up?,” Panda, a 4th times former MP, tweeted soon after the police picked up Biswajit Mohanty and Laxmikanta Behera ,Employee of Ortel Communication. BMC last week lodged a complaint against OTV accusing it of spreading misinformation related to Covid.
A woman claiming herself as wife one of the arrested person, told to OTV that her husband and his frind did not talk anything against the government in the audio clip and neither targeted anyone. I have never imagine that a simple audio discussion of my husband with friend would snowball into such a big controversy,” the woman said while speaking to OTV.“Coming under the pressure, the police may force my husband to change his statement,” she added.
OTV had in a statement have said that the Bhubaneswar civic body had served a show cause notice to it through police in the middle of August 7 midnight. “If the state government wants all media houses to act as their mouthpiece, then where is the fundamental duty of a journalist? You cannot serve notice to media for showing what has actually been said by some persons,” said Leader of Opposition in Odisha Assembly, Pradip Nayak. Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati said, “There are so many lapses in COVID19 management in the state. People are facing a lot of problems. A law should be brought in the Assembly to regulate social media.
Meanwhile, several other BJP leaders including Former Odisha DG and BJP leader Prakash Mishra and two sitting Lok Sabha MPs including Jual Oram of Sundargarh and Aparajita Sarangi on Bhubaneswar have strongly denounced action against OTV.
“Strongly condemn the case against media persons of OTV .Should we allow absolute power to silence all,” tweeted the former NDRF DG, Prakash Mishra@PrakashMishra. Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi said, “Not only OTV, any media should be patted on the back for bringing such irregularities to the notice of the Government. It has raised questions on transparency and clearly shows that the State government is intolerant and lacks courage.” Lok Sabha MP and former Union Minister, Jual Oram also alleged that there has been massive irregularities in COVID-19 management in Odisha.
It may be noted that OTV had posted the audio clip of two persons in conversation with each other on COVID mismanagement on August 6. However, the BMC authorities refuted the claims and later issued a show-cause notice to OTV. The BMC had also filed a police complaint in this connection.
As per an official statement, “The mischievous conversation is trying to make others believe that there are false corona positive reports, and persons are being shifted to hospitals by falsely showing them positive .” “This goes against the guidelines related to the management of the present disaster and violates many legal provisions, thus attracting criminal action,” the press release added.Further, the police department has urged everyone “not to circulate misleading information and rumours about the pandemic”.
