The New Indian Express ·
Politics
Actress video lands Rourkela Circuit House in another soup
ROURKELA: The spectacle around Rourkela Circuit House got murkier after the video clip of an actress went viral on social media platforms, showing her boasting of special treatment at the facility.
The video clip surfaces close on the heels of controversy over the arrest of Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram’s Rourkela representative Prakash Paswan (35) on charges of harbouring criminals at the circuit house.
In the video clip, the woman claims the CEO of a company was driving her in a luxurious Audi car from Jharsuguda airport to the crcuit house for a shooting project.
She shows her room at the circuit house in her video and claims only top government officials were entitled to stay at the place. She is also heard saying she would meet the Superintendent of Police (SP) in the evening and the officer’s son would also come to meet her.
According to a source, the woman got an executive room at the circuit house on December 1, 2025, barely a fortnight after Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi inaugurated the facility built at a cost of Rs 24 crore. The circuit house has 30 executive and four VVIP rooms.
Following the emergence of the video clip, Rourkela police detained one Ashish Mohanty and is looking at him for his alleged role in facilitating the circuit house room for the woman. Mohanty, who is his late forties, is a resident of Chhend Colony in Rourkela and the son of a former Vigilance department SP who died around five years ago.
Police also detained the owner of the Audi car in which the woman travelled from Jharsuguda to Rourkela. The car owner used to rent out his Audi, said a police source.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani declined to share details and said an investigation was underway. The circuit house has been in the news following a surprise raid by the RN Pali
police in the early hours of August 15, which led to arrest of criminals with firearms from the fracility. The investigation is primarily focused on Paswan’s role. Paswan was arrested from Bihar on August 26. Before he was arrested, State BJP president Manmohan Samal had suspended him as the state executive member of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
On August 21, the SP questioned Panposh sub-collector Chandra Kanta Mallick to determine what procedures were followed in arranging two executive rooms at Paswan’s behest, said a source.
DIG (Western Range) Brijesh Kumar Ray said a detailed report regarding protocol for use of the circuit house premises, allocation of rooms, weekly statement and audit report about occupancy, details of guests and other relevant information was sought from the sub-collector’s office following the raid and it is awaited.
