Odisha Crime Branch to probe missing judicial report on VHP leader’s killing

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi ordered the Crime Branch to probe the missing judicial report on the 2008 killing of VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati.

Laxmanananda Saraswati and four associates were shot dead by Maoists at his ashram in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Aug. 23, 2008.

The missing report is the Justice AS Naidu Commission report, submitted in 2016, which investigated the killing.

A FIR was registered by the state home department over the disappearance of both the Naidu report and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner’s inquiry report on the 2016 SUM Hospital fire.

The FIR states the reports are untraceable at the CMO, raising suspicion of intentional removal, concealment, or destruction.