Former Odisha DGP Prakash Mishra appointed as advisor to chief minister

A 1977-batch PS officer, Prakash Mishra had also served as the director general of the Central Reserve Police Force and the National Disaster Response Force

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Monday appointed former director general of police (DGP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Prakash Mishra as advisor to chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi.

Prakash Mishra (File Photo)

In a notification issued on Monday, the General Administration and Public Grievance department said, “Prakash Mishra, retired IPS officer, has been appointed as the advisor to the Chief Minister.”

Mishra has also been accorded the rank of a cabinet minister, it added.

A 1977-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Mishra held the post of the DGP from 2012 to 2014. Before he retired from service, he had served as the director general (DG) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from 2014 to 2016 and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Following his retirement, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state in 2019 and unsuccessfully contested as BJP candidate from Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 elections.

Mishra, who had fallen out with Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik after the latter lodged a vigilance case against him in 2014, recently wrote a book titled ‘Comedy in Khaki’, which did not go well with Patnaik’s supporters, who burnt the copy of the book and demanded an immediate ban on it for its veiled and sarcastic references to Patnaik.

Mishra was appointed DGP of Odisha in 2012 and he was credited with quelling Maoist violence in southern Odisha districts of Rayagada, Malkangiri and Koraput. During 2014 elections, his force seized several ambulances that were reportedly ferrying unaccounted campaign cash for the ruling party.

The state vigilance lodged a case against him, alleging financial improprieties during his tenure as the chairperson and managing director of the Odisha State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation from 2006 to 2009, in late 2014, when his name had come up for the post of CBI director.

Though the Orissa high court in June 2015 quashed the vigilance FIR indicting the state government for hounding out Mishra, the order came too late for his name to be considered for the post of CBI director.

The high court said the vigilance authorities had acted with a “predetermined agenda” to implicate Mishra without sufficient evidence and slammed the vigilance director for allowing a “sham inquiry” to proceed and for showing loyalty to the ruling political establishment rather than pursuing justice.