Odisha Police has summoned former IAS officer V K Pandian for questioning in connection with the alleged disappearance of two probe committee reports related to the 2008 murder of Hindu leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and the 2016 SUM Hospital fire in Bhubaneswar from the Prime Minister’s Office, officials said on Wednesday.
The Bhubaneswar Metropolitan Police Station 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.
Pandian, a 2000-batch IAS officer, worked as private secretary to former chief minister Naveen Patnaik before 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 election defeat.
The summons is part of a widening probe into the disappearance of the Justice AS Naidu Commission’s report on the 2008 killing of Hindu leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and his aides, and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner’s inquiry report on the 2016 SUM Hospital fire in Bhubaneswar.
The police had earlier issued notices to former IT Minister Manoj Mishra and IAS officer Rajesh Verma. Officials said Mishra appeared before investigators and recorded his statement, while Verma did not appear despite being asked to do so by Wednesday morning.
The Odisha Home Department last month registered a first information report (FIR) against unidentified persons under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act relating to criminal breach of trust by a public servant, destruction or concealment of official documents, and criminal conspiracy.
According to the FIR filed by Home Ministry Joint Secretary Sarath Chandra Marandi, repeated searches failed to locate the two investigation reports in official records.
Laxmanananda and four of his followers were shot dead by Maoists at his ashram in Kandhamal district on August 23, 2008. The killings sparked one of the worst incidents of communal violence in Odisha, in which at least 38 people were killed 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 important because several files and other official reports sent to the Prime Minister’s Office were returned to the Home Ministry on June 4, 2024, when the election results indicated a change of government in Odisha, but the two investigation reports were not.
The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the reports, particularly when other files from the same period were returned, create reasonable suspicion that they may have been deliberately removed, retained, concealed, destroyed or illegally handled, the FIR said.
