Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Lokayukta has directed the state government to appoint a woman in state Prisons department as a jail warder after the allegations of deliberate manipulation in the recruitment examination in 2012 were found to be true.
The Lokayukta also directed the SP of Vigilance department of Sambalpur Division to expedite the probe into the matter and submit the enquiry report to the Lokayukta for further action.
The Vigilance SP has also been asked to send separate copies related to the correspondence between the Lokayukta and the Vigilance department, the FIR lodged by the victim’s husband, Trayambak Barik, and the enquiry report to the Home department for action.
The Lokayukta delivered the order while hearing a complaint filed by Barik November 25, 2019. Barik had accused the Vigilance department of not taking any action against the accused persons despite the lapse of a considerable period of time.
Subsequently, the Lokayukta sought a report from the SP, Vigilance, Sambalpur Division, who submitted an initial enquiry report confirming the allegations of manipulations in the exams. The inquiry report revealed that the victim, Champaklata Pradhan, was deliberately given fewer marks by the authorities in charge of the examination.
Additionally, she was also ‘disqualified’ from the post even after she joined the job for a few days. Later, the Vigilance department also filed a case (57/19) under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against former DIG prisons Berhampur Range, Gopabandhu Mallick, Birakishore Dash, Lecturer of Sociology at the Odisha Jail Training School at Berhampur and Gagan Bihari Sahoo, the jailor of circle jail at Koraput.