Odisha Police have summoned former IAS officer V.K. Pandian for questioning in connection with the alleged disappearance of two inquiry commission reports related to the 2008 killing of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and the 2016 SUM Hospital fire in Bhubaneswar from the chief minister’s office, officials said on Wednesday.
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Pandian, a 2000-batch IAS officer, served as private secretary to former chief minister Naveen Patnaik before taking voluntary retirement from the civil services. He later joined the opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ahead of the 2024 national and state elections but withdrew from active politics after the party’s electoral defeat.
The summons is part of a widening probe into the disappearance of the Justice A.S. Naidu Commission report on the 2008 killing of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and his aides, and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner’s inquiry report on the 2016 SUM Hospital fire in Bhubaneswar.
Police had earlier issued notices to former IT secretary Manoj Mishra and IAS officer Rajesh Verma. Mishra appeared before investigators and recorded his statement, while Verma did not appear despite being asked to do so by Wednesday morning, officials said.
The Odisha home department last month registered a First Information Report (FIR) against unidentified persons under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) relating to criminal breach of trust by a public servant, destruction or concealment of official documents, and criminal conspiracy.
The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the reports, particularly when other files from the same period were returned, create a reasonable suspicion that they may have been intentionally removed, retained, concealed, destroyed or otherwise unlawfully dealt with, the FIR said.
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The Capital Police station in Bhubaneswar issued a notice directing Pandian to appear before the assistant commissioner of police, Zone-I, at 11 am on July 25, according to the notice.
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According to the FIR filed by Home department joint secretary Sarat Chandra Marandi, repeated searches failed to locate the two inquiry reports in official records.
Laxmanananda and four disciples were shot dead by Maoists at his ashram in Kandhamal district on August 23, 2008. The killings triggered one of Odisha’s worst episodes of communal violence, in which at least 38 people died and hundreds of homes and places of worship were destroyed.
The SUM Hospital fire in October 2016 killed 24 people after smoke spread through the intensive care, dialysis and emergency units of the private medical college and hospital in Bhubaneswar.
The FIR says the missing reports are significant because several other official files and reports sent to the Chief Minister’s Office were returned to the Home department on June 4, 2024, when election results indicated a change of government in Odisha, but the two inquiry reports were not.
