Odisha Prisons DG Booked for Sexual Harassment, Transferred

Odisha Prisons Director General Sushant Kumar Nath has been removed from his post and transferred to the Home Department as Officer on Special Duty (OSD), following serious allegations of sexual harassment, criminal intimidation and abuse of official authority by a former woman jail official.

The woman, formerly posted at Choudwar Circle Jail in Cuttack, lodged an FIR at Choudwar police station on October 31, accusing Nath and his associate Kuldeep Ratha of harassment, threats and pressuring her to withdraw an earlier complaint against a senior jail official.

According to the FIR, the harassment allegedly began after Nath’s visit to Choudwar Jail in June 2025. The complainant claimed that Ratha subsequently contacted her and invited her to meet privately at a restaurant and Hotel Pramod in Cuttack, allegedly on Nath’s behalf. She refused the invitations.

The woman further alleged that after declining these meetings, she faced departmental action, including suspension, denial of medical leave, stoppage of salary and five departmental proceedings. She also claimed her subsistence allowance was withheld for nearly six months and released only on August 4, 2026, following NCPCR intervention.

The complaint also refers to an earlier controversy involving former Choudwar Jail Superintendent Sujit Kumar Raula. After two undertrial prisoners escaped in October 2025, the woman accused Raula of forging her signature and manipulating official records to implicate her. She had filed an FIR against him.

She alleged that Nath later pressured her to withdraw that case and threatened to terminate or demote her. During meetings on September 7 and 8, 2026, Nath allegedly remarked, “If you had come to meet me, you wouldn’t have faced all these.” She also accused him and his associates of threatening harm to her and her two minor daughters.

Police have registered a case under Sections 75(2), 351(2) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and initiated an investigation.

Meanwhile, through a notification dated November 1, 2026, the Odisha government transferred Nath from the post of Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services to OSD in the Home Department.

The allegations against Nath and Ratha have not yet been established, and the police investigation is continuing.