Keonjhar Superintendent of Police Kavita Jalan on Tuesday suspended four constables and a havildar who were assigned the job of guarding Deepak Gupta, the main accused in the Rs 2,000 crore Uliburu mining scam. The five suspended policemen had been assigned the duty to guard Gupta, who was admitted to the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack for treatment.
However, there were reports last week that Gupta was staying at a hotel in Cuttack though his name was registered in the hospital register as an indoor patient.
Following media reports that the five policemen had facilitated Gupta’s stay in the hotel, the district SP suspended them with immediate effect on grounds of dereliction of duty. Those suspended are Basant Rout (havildar) and Kamalakanta Dehuri, Purushottam Das, Bijay Kumar Nauak and Hiteswar Nayak, all constables.
It was reported that Gupta had managed to stay in an air-conditioned hotel room booked in the name of his father. Following the media reports, the hospital authorities had hurriedly discharged Gupta from the cardiothoracic ward on Sunday last.
Soon after his discharge, Gupta got himself admitted to the orthopedic ward citing pain in his knee joint. However, he was discharged from the ward after reports that he was hand in glove with doctors. Gupta is now back in the Keonjhar jail. Investigations found that he was staying in two rooms booked in the name of his father Champaklal Gupta at hotel Niladri in the Mangalabag area. He used to come to the hotel by a Bolero jeep without any policemen with him.
It is interesting to note that the cabin in the cardiothoracic ward where Gupta was admitted is earmarked for TB patients.