Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Crime Branch (CB) has recorded statements from three former senior bureaucrats, including V K Pandian, in connection with its investigation into the alleged disappearance of two inquiry commission reports from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) during the previous BJD government’s tenure.
Speaking to the media, Crime Branch Inspector General of Police Sarthak Sarangi on Monday said Pandian, a close aide of BJD president and former CM Naveen Patnak, alongside two other former bureaucrats — Rajesh Verma and Manoj Mishra – were questioned. “The three former bureaucrats accepted that the CMO had received the two inquiry commission reports. But, they have no idea about the present whereabouts of the files. Further investigation into the matter is underway,” he added.
The Crime Branch has also found the official receipt proving the files were received. The key question facing the investigating agency now is: Who took the file thereafter and where did it go?Was it stolen or simply misplaced? The Crime Branch may examine old CCTV footage from the office premises to trace who might have accessed or moved the file, sources said.
The three officers questioned occupied key administrative roles during the BJD administration when the reports were received. Pandian, a 2000-batch IAS officer, served as Private Secretary to then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik before taking voluntary retirement to join the BJD ahead of the 2024 simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. He later withdrew from active politics following the BJD’s electoral defeat. Verma previously served as Principal Secretary in the CMO, while Mishra, a former IRTS officer, functioned as the Principal Secretary to the Electronics and Information Technology Department.
This missing files 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.
According to the FIR filed by Joint Secretary (Home) Sarat Chandra Marandi in Capital police station, both reports, along with other files, had been forwarded to the CMO by the Home Department. While other files were returned on June 4, 2024, following the change in government, the two inquiry reports – 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) – were not. “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.
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.
Recognising the gravity of the oversight, the state government later handed over the probe to the Crime Branch.