BHUBANESWAR, Jan 12: Chief Minister J B Patnaik on Tuesday condemned the alleged gang rape of Anjana Misra but refused to step down owning moral responsibility for the crime.``Should I resign for any dacoity and rape anywhere in the State'', he asked, decrying the attempt of some individuals and political parties to malign him on the issue. He, however, did not name anybody.He did not think the State's law and order situation had nose-dived and described as `politically motivated' the attempts to link his name to the gang rape. ``I am astonished (to see) how my name is being linked to the crime. Does this mean that every dacoity or rape committed in the State is happening at my instance?'', he said at a news conference here, his first after the Anjana Misra gang rape case was reported.Asked whether this was `just another rape case', Patnaik shot back, ``Is it a super rape case? When the lady was given security cover, why did she not take her personal security officer along? Why did she opt to take adesolate road to Cuttack instead of the usual road at that hour of the night when she knew that her lawyer was in Bhubaneswar?''Referring to the time of occurence of the rape, he said Mishra, in her complaint, said that it happened around 9.30 pm but she was seen having her ``meal with another person in a dhaba between 10.30 and 11.30 pm''.He added, though, that all this did not take the seriousness of her charge away. The Chief Minister said he had written to the acting Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court to appoint a sitting judge to probe into Mishra's allegation of gang rape. Such a sensitive case, particularly when, his name ``has been dragged'' in, needed to be probed judicially for impartiality, he added.He also condemned the call by major Opposition parties for an Orissa bandh on Wednesday demanding his resignation and wondered how it would solve the problem. He said bandhs actually created fresh problems and appealed to the people to reject the call.Patnaik said he was all forjustice to the victim, punishment to the culprits and emergence of the truth, and added he was not the one to be unnerved by the Opposition attempt to `defame' him. He sought to remind his political adversaries that it took one-and-a-half years and a High Court direction for the previous Janata Dal government in the State to order a judicial probe into the infamous Cuttack liquor tragedy. But in Anjana Misra's case, his government ordered a judicial probe within 48 hours of the incident, he said.Patnaik dismissed the claim of some of his Cabinet colleagues, who are in Delhi ostensibly to complain to the party high command, that there has been a complete breakdown of law and order in the State. ``I am the Home Minister, they have not told me anything. Neither have they raised the issue in the Cabinet'', he replied. He also denied that a revolt was brewing in the State Congress against him.
