JAJPUR: More details on the shady conduct of Barachana police station IIC Deepak Kumar Jena have come to the fore even as DGP Abhay on Monday placed him under suspension for taking his family into the Sri Jagannath temple at Puri in violation of the lockdown guidelines. The errant cop has been found to have travelled to Puri along with his family members in a stolen SUV. He had tried to enter the temple through the South Gate and was detained after the servitors protested and lodged a complaint at Simhadwara police station. The vehicle was seized.
Police has found that the SUV that Jena used belongs to a Cuttack-based contractor Sukanta Kumar Dalei and was stolen from him by four miscreants a month back. While Jena had recovered the SUV, he had not handed it over to its owner and instead, had been using the vehicle by pasting a sticker of Police department and installing a red beacon on it.
Dalei of Gatiroutpatana had lodged a police complaint on March 21 alleging that four miscreants stole the vehicle, cash of `52,000 and some official documents from him while he was on his way to Rural Works Sub Divisional office at Chandikhole for work on March 20. The armed miscreants stopped the vehicle at gun-point and took the contractor to an isolated location at Nisimala and forced him to write on a blank paper that he would pay them `5 lakh as he was carrying out a Government work in their area. They held the contractor hostage for some hours and later freed him.
Dalei registered a complaint in Barachana police station and called up the IIC two days later to be told that the vehicle has been recovered and brought to police station. When the contractor asked the officer about taking possession of the vehicle, the latter kept quiet and did not respond to his subsequent calls. Dalei could not go to the police station due to the lockdown.
The incident has raised several questions on functioning of the Barachana police station and how was the officer authorised to put a beacon on a vehicle with private registration. Jajpur SP Charan Singh Meena could not be contacted for comment.