Bhubaneswar: In a significant development, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has ordered probe by the Crime Branch into the case relating to the missing file of AS Naidu Commission report relating to Kandhamala violence of 2008.
“Chief Minister Shri Mohan Charan Majhi has referred the missing file case of Naidu Commission report over Swami Laxmanananda murder incident to Crime Branch,” a statement from the CMO said on Monday.
It may be noted that the state government had filed an FIR at Capital Police Station in Bhubaneswar over alleged disappearance of the reports of two commissions of inquiry from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). The complaint was lodged by Home Department in June this year.
According to the FIR, the inquiry reports in connection with the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamala district and a fire incident at Sum Hospital in the capital city had gone 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 stated.
Meanwhile, police have already questioned 15 staff members who previously worked in the CMO and recorded their statements.
Police have also issued summons to four former bureaucrats – Rajesh Verma, Manoj Mishra, V K Pandian and U N Behera.
Former IT secretary Manoj Mishra, who was also an officer on special duty to the former CM, is the only official to have appeared and recorded a statement before the investigating officers so far.
Disappearance of these files have sparked a political debate in Odisha, particularly around the sensitive Naidu Commission report on Kandhamala violence, which was submitted in 2016 but never made public.
With the Chief Minister’s fresh order, the Crime Branch will now probe case relating to the disappearance of the report of AS Naidu commission, which looked into the murder of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and the subsequent violence in Kandhamala in 2008.
Notably, Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra was appointed as a one-man commission to probe the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and the subsequent violence in Kandhamala in 2008. However, he passed away in 2012 before submitting his final report.