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Odisha govt suspends senior IPS officer over harassment allegations
IPS officer Dayal Gangwar was earlier removed as additional director general and attached to the home department as an officer on special duty
The Odisha government on Wednesday suspended Indian Police Service officer Dayal Gangwar for allegedly harassing slain Government Railway Police (GRP) constable Soumya Ranjan Swain, even as the suspension is not linked to the latter’s May 7 lynching near Bhubaneswar. The action came after Swain’s family accused Gangwar of harassing the constable.
Chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi ordered Gangwar’s suspension weeks after he was removed as additional director general (ADG) and attached to the home department as an officer on special duty.
A mob allegedly tied Swain to a pole and assaulted him. His post-mortem report showed he died of severe blunt-force trauma that caused extensive internal bleeding in the brain.
Gangwar, a 1998-batch IPS officer, has not been linked to the lynching investigation. But Swain’s family accused Gangwar of harassing the constable during his stint under him in the GRP.
Swain’s father, Dushasan Swain, alleged that Gangwar compelled his son to perform personal tasks unrelated to official duties when the IPS officer was GRP ADG. He claimed that his son was forced to work at a gym of Gangwar’s associates.
Dushasan Swain said Gangwar made his son pay for expensive protein supplements. “Two containers [of protein supplements] were taken every month,” he said. He alleged that his son was made to give massages to Gangwar and his son for nearly two hours every morning and evening. “The repeated massages caused swelling in my son’s hands, forcing him to leave.”
Swain’s family maintained that the constable was under severe mental stress during the period he worked under Gangwar and that the alleged mistreatment adversely affected him.
ADG (railways), Arun Bothra, has ordered an inquiry into the allegations against Gangwar.
