Collector in Odisha district shifted after police books him in murder case

    Bhubaneswar, Nov 16 (PTI) 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 here 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 the his personal assistant Deb Narayan Panda last December.
    Narayan 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 of suicide.
However, around six months later, Narayan'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. PTI AAM
RMS RMS

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)