Bhubaneswar: State govt on Saturday extended the tenure of the commission of inquiry headed by Justice Chitta Ranjan Das up to Jan 31, to probe into alleged assault of an Army officer and molestation of his fiancée at Bharatpur police station here.
The commission was told to file its report within 60 days, which the govt tweaked by modifying the notification, stating, “The paragraph three of the notification for the words within 60 days, the word within Jan 31, 2025, shall be substituted.”
The home department notification said the inquiry is in progress, and the tenure stipulated in the notification expired on Nov 22.
On Nov 13, the Army officer and his fiancée, who were allegedly harassed by a group of youths and later faced custodial torture by police, appeared before the judicial commission.
As many as 16 people were summoned. However, the suspended IIC of Bharatpur police station, Dinakrushna Mishra, appeared through his counsel. The commission so far received 500 affidavits from different people to verify the facts.
Earlier, the crime branch, which took over the investigation from police, took the five suspended police personnel for a polygraph test to Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The commission recently was apprised of brain mapping and narco analysis tests.
Altogether, five personnel, including Mishra, sub-inspector Baisalini Panda, ASIs Salilamayee Sahoo and Sagarika Rath, and constable Balaram Hansdah, underwent a polygraph test at Gandhinagar. Dinakrushna alone underwent both polygraph and narco analysis at the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL), Gandhinagar.
“The reports of polygraph and narco analysis are yet to come. Investigation is going in the right direction,” said a crime branch officer.