The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has issued an arrest warrant against Keonjhar collector Ashish Thakare for defiance of its summons and repeatedly failing to appear before it for a hearing.

The NCST is a constitutional body exercising powers of a civil court under Article 338A of the Constitution of India.

The commission has asked director-general of police (DGP) Sunil Kumar Bansal to arrest and bring Thakare before it at New Delhi. The warrant was issued on Monday.

The commission has also referred to some cases in which the collector remained absent as a witness. The commission since June 2021 had been issuing several summons to the collector Thakare (2011 IAS batch), to attend the hearing. But the collector did not respond to the commission’s summons.

In its warrant, the commission said: “Whereas Shri Ashish Thakare, Collector and District Magistrate , District, Keonjhar, Government of Odisha, was served with a summon dated 21.03.2022 for appearing before the Commission on 04.04.2022 at 4PM but he has failed to appear (absconds and keeps out of the way for the purpose of avoiding service of the summons), the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes exercising the powers of a civil court under clause (8) of the Article 338 A of the Constitution of India hereby orders you to arrest and bring the said Shri Ashish Thakare before the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes at New Delhi.”

The commission asked the DGP that “You are further ordered to return this warrant or before the 13.04.2022 at 11AM with an endorsement certifying the day and the manner in which it has been executed, or the reason why it has not been executed.”

Though attempts were made to contact the DGP and the Keonjhar collector for their comments on this issue, they could not be reached.

MLA close shave

Odisha BJP MLA Mukesh Mahaling escaped unhurt during an attack by miscreants in Bolangir on Tuesday but his driver and personal security officers were injured, police said. The incident took place at Burda Square in Bolangir district when Mahaling was returning to his house after attending an official function.

The attack has been condemned by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and state BJP chief Samir Mohanty.