Bhubaneswar: Senior Odisha cadre IAS officer Sujata R Karthikeyan, the wife of BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s former close aide VK Pandian, was granted permission to take voluntary retirement from government service, official sources said Saturday.
The approval to Karthikeyan’s request for voluntary retirement was informed to Odisha Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja by Under Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pensions, Bhupinder Pal Singh through a letter.
“… It is to convey that Central Government has approved the request of Voluntary Retirement of Smt. Sujata R Karthikeyan, IAS (RR-2000) from IAS with effect from 13.03.2025, in relaxation of three months’ mandatory notice period under Rule 16 (2A) of AIS (DCRB) Rules, 1958. Further, Govt, of Odisha is requested to issue necessary ‘notification’ in this regard,” the letter read.
Karthikeyan, a 2000-batch Odisha cadre officer, was the special secretary in the Finance Department. She had applied for voluntary retirement owing to personal reasons, sources said.
Her bureaucrat-turned-politician husband, VK Pandian, had also taken voluntary retirement in October 2023 and joined the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) headed by Patnaik.
Pandian, however, quit active politics in the wake of the BJD’s defeat in the Assembly polls last year, ending the regional party’s 24-year rule.
In May 2024, the Election Commission had ordered Karthikeyan’s transfer to a department where she would not deal with the public following allegations of misuse of her office.
She was then serving as the commissioner-cum-secretary, Department of Mission Shakti.
Karthikeyan went on a six-month leave after the BJD lost the elections in 2024. She was granted leave till November 26 last year, but her application for extension was rejected by the state’s BJP government.
PTI
