Bhubaneswar: Odisha govt on Monday directed the crime branch to probe the alleged theft of a judicial commission report on the 2008 assassination of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, from the chief minister’s office (CMO) in June 2024.Officials recently discovered that the voluminous report by retired Justice A S Naidu, along with another administrative inquiry file on the 2016 SUM hospital fire tragedy, had not been returned from the CMO to the home department on June 4, 2024 — the day assembly election results signalled the fall of the BJD govt.Commissionerate police launched an investigation by registering an FIR at Capital police station on June 10 against “unknown suspects”.“The chief minister has referred the missing file case of the Naidu commission report to the crime branch,” the CMO said in a statement.Regarding the SUM hospital fire, govt sources clarified that commissionerate police will continue to investigate the incident which claimed 20 lives on Oct 17, 2016.But tracing the Naidu commission report has emerged as a priority for the govt, in line with the BJP’s 2024 election promise to make its findings public. While in opposition, the BJP had demanded a CBI probe into Saraswati’s killing.According to officials, the Naidu report examined the circumstances surrounding rampant religious conversion and Maoist activity linked to the murder of Saraswati and four of his disciples at Jalespeta Ashram in Kandhamal district on Aug 23, 2008 — an incident that triggered widespread ethno-communal violence across the district, leaving at least 38 people dead and more than 20,000 houses torched, while displacing over 10,000 families.A judicial commission was constituted on Sept 8, 2008 by then chief minister Naveen Patnaik when the BJD‑BJP coalition was in power. Initially led by retired Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra, Naidu took over in Sept 2012 following Mohapatra’s death.Naidu submitted the report on Dec 22, 2015. Records show the home department forwarded it to the chief secretary’s office on Sept 16, 2016, and it was sent to the CMO three days later.A Kandhamal court had on Oct 3, 2013, sentenced eight persons to life imprisonment for Saraswati’s murder.
