Bhubaneswar: The police have served a notice on former bureaucrat VK Pandian in connection with the alleged disappearance of the reports of two inquiry commissions from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) in Odisha.

The Capital Police in Bhubaneswar served notice on Pandian, an aide of former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, asking him to depose before it in connection with the case on July 25.

Pandian, a 2000-batch IAS officer, was serving as the Private Secretary to then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik before taking voluntary retirement from his job. He joined the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ahead of the 2024 simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly Polls in Odisha.

However, he left politics following the defeat of BJD in the Assembly polls.   

Home Dept had lodged FIR over the missing files

The Home Department of the state government had lodged a police complaint in connection with the alleged disappearance of the reports of two inquiry commissions from the CMO.

Home Department Joint Secretary Sarat Chandra Marandi had lodged an FIR in this regard with the Capital Police in the city here.

As per the FIR, the inquiry reports in connection with the killing of Swami Laxmananda 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 Laxamananda 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.

Cops had summoned 2 former bureaucrats

“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.

It is worth mentioning here that the police had earlier summoned former bureaucrats Rajesh Verma and Manoj Mishra to depose before them as part of their investigation into the case.

Verma, a former IAS officer, had earlier served in the CMO while Mishra, a former IRTS officer, was the Principal Secretary to the Electronics and IT Department during the BJD govt in the state.

Mishra appeared before the investigating officers a few days ago. However, Verme did not appear before the cop, reports said.