BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday suspended 1998 batch IPS officer Dayal Gangwar who had found himself embroiled in a controversy over allegedly engaging railway constable Soumya Ranjan Swain for non-official duties.
Gangwar was in the middle of a storm after Soumya was lynched by a mob in Balianta area on May 7. His parents claimed that the senior IPS officer compelled him to perform personal duties unrelated to official work. Amid the controversy, Gangwar who was serving as ADG Communications, was transferred and posted last month as officer on special duty in the Home department.
Sources said the DGP submitted a confidential report regarding retention of eight GRP personnel by Gangwar for work in his residence even after his transfer from the post of ADGP Railway & Coastal Security without approval of competent authority.
Earlier, an NHRC team had held discussions with Soumya’s parents, eye-witnesses and local police to collect more information about the lynching incident. They had also questioned railway police to ascertain if the senior officer had indeed harassed Soumya by engaging him for his personal works.