Bhubaneswar: Retired IAS officer Rajesh Verma, who served as Principal Secretary to former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, skipped a police summon on Wednesday (July 22) in connection with the investigation into missing files from the CMO.
The Commissionerate Police had issued summons to Verma and former IT secretary Manoj Mishra as part of the ongoing investigation of the case registered in Capital police station on June 10. While Mishra had already cooperated by appearing earlier and submitting his statement, Verma, who is currently serving as chairperson of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in New Delhi, missed the deadline.
Verma had served as principal secretary to the CMO from 2017 to 2019.
Following standard operating procedures (SOP), police sources indicated that a second notice will be issued to Verma, granting a brief window to cooperate. Continued non-compliance or failure to appear could lead to legal action, including the issuance of a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW).
Mishra, who served as Odisha’s IT secretary from 2019 to 2022 and later as an officer on special duty to the former CM, appeared before the police on July 18 after requesting an earlier date due to his unavailability on July 22.
Speaking to reporters after his questioning, Mishra emphasised his full cooperation with the probe. “Since an FIR has been filed alleging that two files are missing, police are asking officials concerned about the procedures followed for maintaining them. I have shared all the information they sought. As the matter is under investigation, it would not be appropriate to elaborate further,” he said.
The missing-files controversy triggered political debate in Odisha, with most other CMO records accounted for except these two sensitive files – the Justice A S Naidu Commission report on the 2008 assassination of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati (which reached the CMO in September 2016) and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner’s inquiry into the 2016 fire tragedy at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar (forwarded to the CMO in May 2018). The case has been registered under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including those related to theft, criminal breach of trust, causing disappearance of evidence, destruction of documents, and criminal conspiracy.