Collector interfering, says chief judicial magistrate

An audio tape in which a district collector of Chhattisgarh was heard asking the local chief judicial magistrate to bring to his notice the wrongdoings before taking cognisance of them has gone viral, causing unease in the judiciary.

Authoritative sources told this newspaper that chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Sukma, Prabhakar Gwal, has filed a complained with his higher-up regretting interference in his works by local district collector Niroj Bansod.

The CJM on Wednesday lodged the complaint with Sukma district judge Nirmala Minz, a senior district officer said, unwilling to be quoted since he was not authorised to speak to media.

In the audio tape, the district collector was heard advising the CJM not to trust the newspaper reports published by vested interests. He was also heard describing the scribes as “vasooli ki badshah (emperors of extortion)”.

Reminding the CJM of the latter’s recent direction to file FIR against the authorities concerned in connection with alleged irregularities in a state government-run residential tribal school in the district, Mr Bansod, in the audio tape, was heard saying that scribes were filing reports in their newspapers for extortion purpose. “All the reports cannot be trusted,” the DC was heard saying.