Bhubaneswar: VK Pandian Saturday informed Odisha Police that he would fully cooperate with the probe into the alleged missing inquiry commission reports case but expressed his inability to appear before the investigating officer in Bhubaneswar on the scheduled day.
The Capital police station had summoned bureaucrat-turned-politician Pandian to appear before the investigating officer at 1 pm on Saturday as part of its probe into the alleged disappearance of files related to inquiry commission reports from the Chief Minister’s Office during the previous BJD government.
A case was registered in this connection at the Capital police station last month.
Justifying the notice issued to Pandian, a former IAS officer and close aide of ex-chief minister Naveen Patnaik, police said, “From the information collected during the course of investigation, it appears that you may be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the said case. Therefore, you are hereby required to appear before the undersigned at the Office of ACP Zone 1, Bhubaneswar UPD on 25.07.2026 for examination and to extend your full cooperation in the investigation.”
Police had also asked Pandian to bring documents, records, electronic devices or other materials related to the case that might be in his possession or control.
Although police and media personnel were waiting at the ACP’s office for Pandian to appear and record his statement, he did not turn up.
Sources said Pandian informed the police through an email that he could not appear on Saturday as he was abroad due to professional commitments.
“I will fully cooperate with police and have communicated to them immediately, even while being abroad on professional commitments,” a source close to Pandian told PTI.
Pandian informed police that he would return to India on August 12 and would be available to assist the investigation thereafter.
He also suggested that his statement could be recorded through video conferencing if required urgently.
It was not immediately clear whether police had accepted Pandian’s request for virtual examination or would issue a fresh notice asking him to appear after his return.
Pandian, a 2000-batch IAS officer, served as private secretary to Patnaik before taking voluntary retirement and joining the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ahead of the 2024 elections.
He later withdrew from active politics after the party’s defeat in the elections.
On June 10, the state home department lodged a complaint at the Capital police station seeking an investigation into the alleged disappearance of two inquiry commission reports.
The missing reports are the Justice A S Naidu Commission report on the 2008 killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamal and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner’s inquiry report into the 2016 fire tragedy at SUM Hospital and Medical College in Bhubaneswar.
In his complaint, Home Department Joint Secretary Sarat Chandra Marandi said the Chief Minister’s Office did not return the two reports on June 4, 2024, even though other files were sent back to the department following the BJD’s defeat in the Assembly elections.
Marandi said the reports were currently untraceable, raising suspicion that they may have been intentionally removed, concealed, retained, destroyed or otherwise unlawfully dealt with.
Based on the complaint, police have begun an investigation and have summoned several senior officers, including former IAS officers Pandian, UN Behera and Rajesh Verma, for questioning.