Orissa lodges vigilance case against MHA special secretary

Naveen was reportedly miffed with Mishra over the latter's refusal to help his party during the last Assembly elections.

Written by Debabrata Mohanty

Bhubaneshwar | September 25, 2014 12:16 AM IST

2 min read

Orissa vigilance department on Wednesday lodged an FIR against , former director general of police and special secretary(internal security) in Ministry of Home Affairs over his alleged role in favouring some steel and cement suppliers to the tune of Rs 59 crore during his stint in Orissa Police Housing and Welfare Corporation.

Mishra, a 1977-batchofficer, was chairman cum managing director of OPHWC between 2006 and 2009, in the rank of additional DGP. Director of state vigilance KB Singh said a case under Prevention of Corruption Act and other sections of IPC was lodged against Mishra as he gave advance payment of Rs 59 crore to some steel and cement suppliers in 2009. Singh said a special audit was done which faulted Mishra. The CAG audit too found him at fault.

But senior IPS officials said the vigilance case was a move to scuttle Mishra’s chance of becoming the next CBI director. With the probe into the chitfund scam hotting up in Orissa, the Naveen Patnaik government was wary of Mishra heading CBI. Two days ago, CBI arrested former AG Ashok Mohanty in the chit fund case. The agency has also summoned 14 MLAs, MPs and ministers of ruling BJD for interrogation.

Though he served as State DGP between June 2012 and June 2014 and managed to control the Maoist meance in southern Orissa districts and conducted peaceful Assembly and Lok Sabha polls this year, Mishra had an uneasy relationship with the chief minister.

In June this year, Naveen shunted out to an inconsequential post a day after union home minister Rajnath Singh spoke to chief minister Naveen Pattnaik and recommended Mishra’s name for the post of special secretary in MHA. Naveen replaced Mishra in Sanjeev Marik, a relatively junior officer with a controversial past as new DGP. He was finally relieved last month for appointment as special secretary(internal security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs. Naveen was reportedly miffed with Mishra over the latter’s refusal to help his party during the last Assembly elections.

Though the State Government in December 2013 placed Mishra’s name in the offer list for central deputation, it had withdrawn the offer in May citing acute shortage of officers in IPS cadre.

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MHA OPHWC Prakash Mishra vigilance case