State, Centre had no prior information

The commission sought to know from O P Gaggar, the counsel for the Central Government, whether the Intelligence Bureau had adequate advanced information about the happenings in and around tribal areas, role of IB and its function in particular to tribals.

Gaggar said that he would seek instructions from the Central Government and meet the queries of the commission during the next sitting. He apologised to the commission for theinitial inconvenience caused to it due to the lack of infrastructure.

The Advocate General of the State, Jayanat Das, was asked to clarify about the First Information Report FIR which looked like a bogus8217; document to the commission. Das would also clarify the doubts and the misgivings in the FIR. While the FIR in Oriya contained names of four of the accused, the subsequent FIR translated to English has five names, including that of Dara Singh.

The commission also asked Das to provide detailed reports of the District Intelligence Bureau DIB and the State Intelligence on the incident and the measures taken to improve the Intelligence network.

He would also inform the commission about the implementation of the recommendations of the National Police Commission and explain the transfer policy of the State Government.

In his submission, the Advocate General of the State, Jayant Das, admitted that the incident occurred due to lack of information, intelligence and inter-district coordination formaintaining law and order. He said that the remoteness of the areas prevented information flow. It is unfortunate that despite serious efforts by the State police and the CBI, the prime accused Dara Singh is still at large, he submitted.

He further submitted that Orissa is a peaceful State. There may be some sporadic incidents, but never before in the history of the State was there any incident like Manoharpur. The area where the incident occurred was not in the focus for a long time, he said, adding that the miscreants took advantage of the location.

Drawing a broad outline for further arguments, Gopal Subramanium, senior counsel for the commission, desired that the commission should give a set of recommendations in his report on religious tolerance, communal harmony and mutual understanding to eliminate future strife. He also urged the commission to reflect the plight of the tribals and give recommendations for their sustainable development.

He also pleaded to the commission to emphasise on the needfor upgradation in the police department and investigative techniques.