Did not preserve soft copies: Naidu panel chief on ‘missing’ report

Bhubaneswar: Amid the mystery surrounding the alleged disappearance of two crucial inquiry commission reports from the chief minister’s office during the 2024 power shift, Justice (retd) A S Naidu — who headed one of the panels — has demanded a thorough investigation.Justice (retd) Naidu, who led the commission probing the 2008 assassination of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamal district, said his office did not preserve any backup copy of the report, either in print or electronically.“It is hard to believe that such a highly sensitive document, running into nearly 1,500-2,000 pages across two volumes, could simply vanish. I strongly suspect it may have been misplaced. I do not think anyone would benefit from stealing it,” Naidu told the media on Thursday.His remarks come a day after the home department lodged an FIR at Capital police station over the alleged theft of the Saraswati assassination report and the RDC inquiry report into the 2016 SUM hospital fire. The govt said it recently learnt that the two files did not return from the CMO to the home department on June 4, 2024, the day BJD lost power in the assembly election.Without disclosing the findings, Naidu said his report detailed circumstances surrounding rampant religious conversion and Maoist activities linked to the killing of Saraswati and four of his disciples at Jalespeta Ashram in Kandhamal on August 23, 2008 — an incident that had triggered widespread violence across the district in which at least 38 people were killed and more than 20,000 houses torched, rendering over 10,000 families homeless.A judicial commission was constituted on Sept 8, 2008, by then CM Naveen Patnaik, who was heading a BJD-BJP coalition govt. Initially chaired by Justice (retd) Sarat Chandra Mohapatra of the high court, the panel was then headed by Justice Naidu in Sept 2012 following Mohapatra’s death.After three years of work, Naidu submitted the voluminous report on Dec 22, 2015. According to official records, the home department forwarded it to the chief secretary’s office on Sept 16, 2016, and was sent to the CMO three days later.