Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has directed the Crime Branch to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the AS Naidu Commission report on the 2008 Kandhamala violence and the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
The state government had earlier lodged an FIR after reports from two commissions of inquiry — one on the Kandhamala violence (2016) and another on the SUM Hospital fire tragedy (2018) — were found missing from the Chief Minister’s Office. The FIR alleged that the reports may have been intentionally removed, concealed, or destroyed, raising serious questions about accountability and transparency.
Police have already questioned 15 staff members and summoned four former bureaucrats, including Rajesh Verma, Manoj Mishra, V K Pandian, and U N Behera. Of them, only Manoj Mishra has appeared and recorded his statement.
The disappearance has sparked political debate in Odisha, particularly because the Naidu Commission report was never made public despite being submitted in 2016. The inquiry had originally been assigned to Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra, who passed away in 2012 before completing the report. It was later transferred to Justice AS Naidu, whose final findings have now gone missing from the CMO during the previous BJD government.
The probe is expected to shed light on whether the disappearance was deliberate and who may be responsible for the unlawful handling of sensitive documents.
