DDUGJY scam: Gauhati High Court, Itanagar bench extends time

A CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: The Gauhati High Court, Itanagar Bench, extended three weeks on the PIL No.13/2022 (Kaku Potom vs State of Arunachal Pradesh) case related to the alleged Rs142-crore scam under the central project of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) in Arunachal Pradesh filed by one Kaku Potom.

Speaking to reporters after appearing before the High Court today, Senior Advocate Nalo Pada said that after 45 days the hearing was fixed today, but the private respondents No. 10 & 11 have failed to file their affidavits.

He said the representative of respondent No. 10, Nirvana Enterprises & respondent No. 11 D M Enterprise had sought four weeks but it was objected to.

"We pleaded with the court to give the respondent a short time as the matter is related to public grievances. So, upon hearing the plead, the court conferred only three weeks to both the respondent," he said.

When queried on the delay in filing the affidavit by respondents No. 10 & 11, Pada informed both the representative informed the court that they (the respondent) came from Guwahati and the required papers to file an affidavit on time were not found.

"Such excuses are a delay tactic, but we believe that it will not work every time. Nowadays, every paper is being sent by speed post that takes a minimum of two days to reach Guwahati," Pada added.

He also said that the respondents have raised the question of Merit and Maintainability of the PIL, and our effort is to plead to the court to fix the PIL for final gearing as soon as possible.

"Moreover, no new or additional affidavit has been filed by the State government till now into the case," he informed.

The Public Interest Litigation (13/2022) was filed in the Gauhati High Court -Itanagar Bench before Justice SK Medhi and Justice Kakheto Sema praying for registering a criminal case as well as a judicial inquiry into the mismanagement of funds meant for the project under the DDUGJY, about three districts, West Kameng, Tawang and Namsai worth Rs 142.74 crore.

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