Bhubaneswar: An FIR was filed at Capital Police Station in Bhubaneswar over alleged disappearance of the reports of two commissions of inquiry from the Odisha Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
Official sources said that the complaint was lodged by Home Department Joint Secretary Sarat Chandra Marandi at the Capital Police Station on Wednesday.
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 in the capital city went missing from the CMO.
Notably, 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 Assembly elections. However, the two inquiry commission reports had not been returned, claimed the FIR.
“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,” the FIR said.
The Home Department has urged the police to register a case and launch a probe to ascertain the circumstances that led the disappearance of the reports. Police have been urged to identify the persons responsible for the disappearance of the reports and initiate action against them.
The move follows Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s statement on Sunday that the government would probe the sensitive matter.
