Parlakhemundi: Police Friday issued a notice to a peon asking him to clarify his alleged role in serving urine instead of drinking water to a newly appointed junior engineer at a government department in Odisha’s Gajapati district, an officer said.
The peon, however, asserted that he had taken the water from a purifier machine, kept the bottle in the engineer’s room and had no idea what happened thereafter.
The police action came around a week after the incident that took place at the office of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) Department at Parlakhemundi.
The junior engineer, who joined the RWSS office July 18, lodged a complaint at R Udaygiri police station alleging that he was served a bottle of water mixed with human urine by the peon July 23.
The police served the peon a notice asking him to clarify his role in the incident.
“There is no point in arresting the peon without having any prima facie evidence against him. We have seized the water allegedly mixed with human urine and sent it to a laboratory for examination. The police have also collected samples from the peon and the engineer,” Gajapati SP Jatindra Kumar Panda told PTI over the phone.
In his complaint, the engineer said the peon gave him a bottle of water to drink. After drinking a portion of it, he suspected something else was in the water, based on its smell and taste.
Two other staff members present at the time also tasted the liquid, and his suspicion was corroborated, the engineer said in the complaint.
He then sent the sample to the RWSS laboratory. A preliminary lab test detected 2.0 PPM (parts per million) of ammonia in the sample, raising suspicion of urine contamination.
“The high levels of ammonia establish that it was urine. I have filed an FIR with the police. I want a full investigation. I feel humiliated,” the engineer told reporters.
The peon denied the allegation.
“I had brought the water from a purifier machine. I kept the bottle in the engineer’s room and do not know what happened thereafter,” he said.
PTI
