The crime branch of Odisha police have conceded to the request of BJP national vice-president Baijayant “Jay” Panda’s wife, Jagi Mangat, the managing director of news channel OTV, to record her statement in connection with an alleged gang-rape case involving two employees of her channel at a place of her choice.

“As a woman, she has the right under the law to ask for recording of her statement in her office or at the place she chooses. We will soon proceed with the case,” said a senior crime branch official.

Jagi had failed to appear before the crime branch to record her statement on October 17. She had then requested the crime branch to record her statement in her office.

A senior reporter of the channel, Ramesh Rath, who was picked up by police from near his residence in the city on October 15 in connection with a case relating to circulation of an allegedly morphed obscene video clip of a Biju Janata Dal leader from Keonjhar, has resigned.

The gang-rape case came into focus after the mother of the alleged victim who is a minor lodged a complaint with the police. The woman, a former OTV employee, accused seven persons, including two employees of the channel, of being involved in the alleged crime. She also alleged that Jagi had urged her not to proceed with the case. Jagi has vehemently denied the charge.

The alleged crime took place between March and April but a complaint was registered only on August 30. Later, an audio clip of the purported conversation between Jagi and the victim’s mother came into public domain.

While the case is being investigated by the crime branch, the state women’s commission is looking into the allegations of harassment of the victim’s mother at her former workplace. Jagi has consistently maintained that the women’s harassment cell of the channel had examined the matter and advised the victim’s mother to seek police and legal help.

The channel claims that it is being harassed by the state government for exposing its alleged corruption in Covid-19 management. “Ever since OTV ran some stories about Covid corruption in Odisha, state government has been targeting it and its employees, even me and my family members,” Jagi said in a release issued on October 3.

“The vindictive attitude of Naveen Patnaik government, which has been making false allegations against us, is there for everyone to see. We expect more false cases against us in future,” she added.

The state government, on the other hand, feels that OTV is trying to malign chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s image by raising the issue of alleged irregularities in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other kits though allegations in this connection have also been made by others.

Baijayant Panda File picture

There are also other reasons behind the friction between the channel and the state government. Based on information obtained through an RTI application, OTV had aired a report that cast doubts on the chief minister’s aerial survey of flood-hit areas. The channel said it did not get any response on the issue from the chief minister’s office despite repeated requests.

Naveen is said to have flown in the helicopter for the survey for just 19 minutes on August 31. The Airports Authority of India, too, had clarified that the chief minister’s helicopter had indeed departed on that day. However, the RTI activists have demanded that the entire video of the chief minister’s survey be made public.

Rath, who had highlighted the aerial survey issue, was picked up by the police on October 15 in the immediate wake of the channel running the aerial survey report. OTV has described it as a vindictive step. The police, however, maintain that he was interrogated in connection with the circulation of an obscene video clip last year.

The police claimed that the video had gone viral on the eve of the 2019 general elections and one of the accused in the case had named Rath as the person who had provided him the video clip. Rath was released within hours of being picked up and asked to appear before Keonjhar police on October 21. However, he did not appear before the Keonjhar police on that day citing health problems and sought 15 days’ time. He resigned from the channel two days ago.

In the wake of Rath’s detention for a few hours, Jay Panda had tweeted, “REPORTER who broke news of RTI activists’ exposé of Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik’s claimed flood review aerial survey is ARRESTED. Wonder whether @IndEditorsGuild will condemn this, or if the many legendary champions of #FreedomOfSpeech in India will protest or return their awards??”

On the other hand, the BJD leader from Keonjhar had said in a release: “I have a question for OTV owners Jagi Panda and Baijayant Jay Panda. If a daughter from your family was in my place and her morphed obscene video had been viraled, would you have saved the man like OTV reporter Ramesh Rath who had perpetuated it?”

“I want to ask the national media if your daughter and sister’s morphed obscene video was viraled by a journalist, would you have pardoned the journalist just because he was a journalist? Has immunity from police action been provided to journalists in India who commit a crime? As a tribal lady, my honour and dignity were defamed in public. When will I get justice?” the BJD leader asked.

On its part, OTV said in a release that the law should take its own course in the matter. “But it is surprising that they have woken up to it only now, one day after Ramesh Rath reported RTI activist’s findings regarding the CM’s chopper review of the floods,” said the channel’s operating officer Litisha Mangat.

The channel has cited other examples of alleged harassment by the government. Recently the Khurda district administration demolished the boundary wall of OTV’s CSR project at Saura on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar alleging that it was stopping the free flow of water into nearby agricultural land. The government has also launched a crime branch probe to find out whether there were any irregularities in the purchase of land.

The political war between the chief minister and Panda, a former MP, has intensified following the latter’s suspension from the BJD in January 2018. “Differences between them grew further following OTV’s alleged attempts to malign the Naveen government. It’s not a healthy trend,” said political analyst Girija Shankar Dash.

“We need to look deep into the matter. Panda used to be the blue-eyed boy of Naveen babu. But he fell from grace after he tried to spread false stories about the chief minister and the BJD and began tilting towards the BJP. His ambition to become the chief minister of the state has cost him a lot,” said a senior BJD leader.

In an interview to news agency ANI in April 2019, Patnaik had said, “After 2014, a number of my friends from Delhi rang me up with concern because they thought I was

in bad health. But my health has always been good and I told them so. They told me that this is what Baijayant Panda was spreading. This was a shock.”

The chief minister had said that Panda was interested in promoting his mining business and wanted to become the chairman of the parliamentary finance committee, which he did not support.

“Things worsened after the Panda family’s channel started targeting Naveen’s office and some BJP youth activists forcibly entered the residence of Naveen’s private secretary, V.K. Pandian. Their relations soured further when Naveen picked up Anubhav Mohanty to contest against Panda from the Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency. The chief minister personally monitored the campaign and ensured Anubhav’s victory by a huge margin,” said a BJD leader.