At least three senior Orissa politicians, including a minister and two former ministers have moved courts seeking relief on non-bailable warrants issued against them.
The politicians who have moved the courts are state Higher Education Minister Samir Dey, former state women and child development minister Pramilla Mallik and former state cooperation and transport minister Arabinda Dhali.
The move by these politicians of the ruling coalition of Bharatiya Janata Party and Biju Janata Dal have come at a time when opposition Congress party in the state is demanding their arrest over the non-execution of pending arrest warrants against them.
The Congress leaders are jubilant after they got success last Monday when Mallik resigned over a criminal case following their protest. She was charged with assault on a public servant in 1999.
A court had issued a non-bailable warrant against her three times in the past. The police, however, did not execute it shwoing her as 'untraceable'.
A Cuttack court had directed the police to produce Samir Dey, Arabinda Dhali and several others of Bharatiya Janata Party in connection with a criminal case on November 26, 1996.
The court had also ordered the police to serve non bailable warrants against 70 persons, including Dey and Dhali. In this case too the police had been showing them as 'untraceable' even if they had been attending office and government functions.
While Mallik has moved a bail petition before the sub divisional judicial magistrate at the district of Jajpur, Dey has moved similar petition the court of first judicial magistrate at Cuttack.