Bhubaneswar: The state government has ordered the Crime Branch of Odisha Police to probe the alleged disappearance of the judicial commission report pertaining to the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has directed the Crime Branch to take over the probe from the Capital police.

On the basis of a complaint lodged by the Home Department, the Capital police in Bhubaneswar had registered a case with regard to the disappearance of the reports of two inquiry commissions from the CMO and launched a probe.

As per the FIR, the inquiry reports in connection with the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamal district and a fire incident at Sum Hospital and Medical College in the capital city went missing from the CMO.

Justice AS Naidu Commission had submitted its report on the killing of Laxmanananda Saraswati in 2016 while the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) had submitted the inquiry report on the fire incident in 2018.

The two inquiry reports along with some other important files had been forwarded to the CMO by the Home Department, said the FIR.

The CMO had returned other files to the Home Department on June 4, 2024 after the defeat of the ruling party in the Assembly elections. However, the CMO did not return the two inquiry commission reports, claimed the FIR.

“The two reports are presently untraceable at the CMO. The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of these two reports create a reasonable suspicion that the reports may have been intentionally removed, retained, concealed, destroyed or otherwise unlawfully dealt with,” read the FIR.

As part of its probe, the Capital police had summoned several former bureaucrats including VK Pandian, who had served as the Private Secretary to then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, for questioning.