Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi Monday ordered a CID probe into the disappearance of the inquiry commission report on the assassination of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and the subsequent communal violence in Kandhamal in 2008 when the BJD was in power.
The matter was being investigated by the Bhubaneswar-Kataka Commissionerate of Police.
Justice AS Naidu Commission inquired into the killing of Saraswati and the subsequent communal violence, and its report has allegedly gone missing during the change of government in 2024 when the BJP came to power in Odisha.
“Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has referred the missing file case of the Naidu Commission report over Swami Laxmanananda murder incident to CID Crime Branch,” the CMO said in a statement.
Besides the Naidu Commission report, the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) inquiry report into the Sum Hospital fire incident of 2016 has gone missing from the CMO.
A case was lodged at the Capital Police Station June 10 over the missing reports, the investigation of which is being carried out by the Commissioner of Police.
An FIR was registered following a complaint by Sarat Chandra Marandi, a Joint Secretary in the Home Department.
The complainant mentioned that the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of these two reports create a reasonable suspicion that the documents may have been intentionally removed, retained, concealed, destroyed or otherwise unlawfully dealt with.
The chief minister handed over the case to the CID Crime Branch after three former IAS officers — bureaucrat-turned-politician V K Pandian, U N Behera and Rajesh Verma — skipped appearing before the investigating officer despite being summoned for questioning this month, officials said.
It is being alleged that two inquiry commission reports disappeared from the CMO in June 2024 during a transition period when BJD was ousted from power, and the BJP formed a government in the state.
While Pandian has informed the police that he could not appear because he was abroad. Rajesh Verma has been issued another notice to appear before the investigating officer July 30.
Behera who had served as additional chief secretary to former chief minister Naveen Patnaik between November 2015 and January 2017 did not appear before the police Sunday.
Former IT secretary Manoj Mishra, who was an officer on special duty to the former CM, is the only senior official to have appeared and recorded a statement before the investigating officers.
Meanwhile, the police have already questioned 15 officials who previously worked in the CMO during the BJD government and recorded their statements.
This disappearance of the files has sparked a political debate in Odisha, particularly around the sensitive Naidu Commission report on Kandhamal violence, which was submitted in 2016 but never made public.