A day after Malkangiri district magistrate-cum collector Manish Agarwal was booked in a murder case, the Odisha government on Monday shifted the bureaucrat to its planning and convergence department.
Yeddula Vijay, an IAS officer of 2014 batch, has replaced Agarwal in the tribal-dominated district, an official notification said.
Agarwal has been made the deputy secretary in the planning and convergence department, it said.
Police on Sunday registered a murder case against Agarwal and three others of the district collector's office, following a directive issued by Malkangiri Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) court in connection with the death of his personal assistant Deb Narayan Panda last December.
Panda had gone missing on December 27 last year. A day after, his body was recovered from Satiguda reservoir. It was then suspected that he might have died by suicide. However, around six months later, Panda's wife, Banaja, and family members alleged that he was murdered by the Malkangiri collector and some of his subordinates.
The personal assistant's family subsequently lodged a written complaint, but it was not immediately registered by the police.
It was only after Panda's family moved the Odisha Human Rights Commission, an investigation was initiated.
Accordingly, the DIG, southern western range, undertook spot visits and inquired about the assistant's death.
Panda's family members also filed a case before the SDJM's court, praying for a direction to the police to register a murder case against the Malkangiri collector and three others.
