The Director General Of Police (DGP) office issued a circular to Superintendent of Police (SP),Subarnapur to transfer controversial Inspector-in-Charge of Sonepur police station Srikanta Kumar Tripathy to Police Training College (PTC), Angul.
As per Sources, RTI activist Srikumar Mahant had subsequently lodged a complaint with senior officials of Odisha police alleging nexus of police officials of Subarnapur with drugs peddlers and met Home Secretary Asit Kummmar Tripathy over the matter. By taking seriously, Home Secretary Tripathy assigned the investigation to CID Crime Branch, Cuttack.
So a Crime Branch inquiry was conducted. Meanwhile, Crime Branch SP, Radha Binod Panigrahi visited both Sonepur and Tarbha police stations to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and collect all the documents from activist Mahanta. The nexus of accused police officer Tripathy was exposed after it came to light that in 90 per cent cases, registered under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act by Tarabha police, one Ujir Khan was made a regular witness.
An RTI query revealed that 48 NDPS cases were registered by Tarabha police from 2014 to 2017 during Tripathy’s term as IIC of the Tarbha police station.
However, Khan and some of his associates were arrested on the charges of ganja smuggling by Chhattisgarh police in April this year. “I had contacted Mahasamud SP and had sent all evidence through email and also reported the matter to DIG.
As one of the police witnesses has been arrested in ganja smuggling, it clearly implies that there is some involvement of the concerned police official,” said Mahanta. Though the Human Rights Commission had directed officials to take necessary action against those found guilty within eight weeks, the department is yet to act, informed sources.