Cop who ‘threatened’ petitioner reinstated

On January 20 this year, when Jena was waiting for his advocate at the SC canteen, the DSP met him and reportedly threatened him.

A CID officer, suspended in February for allegedly intimidating a petitioner who had moved the Supreme Court seeking CBI probe into the chit fund scam, has been reinstated by the Orissa government with the state home department recommending a minor pen-alty proceeding against him.

Pramod Kumar Panda, Deputy Superintendent of Police of special task force in Criminal Investigations Department, was suspended after Orissa-based petitioner Alok Jena filed a complaint with the Delhi police and an interim application in Supreme Court that the officer threatened to “eliminate” him.

Last month, a two-judge bench of the SC had ordered a probe by the CBI into the chit fund scam in Orissa after Jena filed the writ petition. In Orissa chit fund firms allegedly collected around Rs 4,600 crore by defrauding their clients.

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On January 20 this year, when Jena was waiting for his advocate at the SC canteen, the DSP met him and reportedly threatened him. Two days later, the DSP also came to the SC and allegedly told Jena that he and his family would be “eliminated” if the writ petition was not withdrawn. Two separate FIRs were filed in Dwarka and Tilak Nagar police stations along with CCTV footage of the DSP’s act. Jena also moved an interlocutory application in the original case citing threat to his life.

However, Orrisa Home Secretary Vipin Saxena who conducted a probe into the matter appeared to have let the officer off the hook.

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