SDPO suspended for taking gold jewellery from shop

Berhampur: The sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Aska, Santosh Kumar Jena, has been suspended for allegedly taking gold jewelery from a shop without paying in Odisha’s Ganjam district.

SDPO Santosh Kumar Jena was suspended on Tuesday following a complaint by the owner of the jewellery shop at Aska. The compalint was registered around three months ago. The jeweller alleged that Jena had taken gold ornaments from his shop but did not make the payment even after repeated requests.

As all requests failed, the shop owner reportedly submitted complaints to the DGP and the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell.

In addition, he had also uploaded a video related to the matter on Facebook, which he later deleted.

Later, acting on the complaint, the senior officials of Home department conducted an investigation. During the investigation, they found that the allegations brought against the SDPO is true.

Ganjam SP Suvendhu Kumar Patra also submitted a detailed report on the SDPO , which stated that there were also several fraud allegations against Jena.

Following the investigation, the SDPO was suspended immediately under Rule 12(1) of the Odisha Civil Services (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules, 1962

An official order of the Home department said, “Santosh Kumar Jena, OPS, SDPO, Aska is placed under suspension with immediate effect under Rule 12(1) of the Odisha Civil Services (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules, 1962, pending drawal of disciplinary proceeding against him.”

During the suspension period, Jena’s headquarters has been fixed at the office of the IG (Southern Range), Berhampur. He will remain under the administrative control of the IG and has been directed not to leave the headquarters without prior permission. He will also be entitled to subsistence allowance as per Rule 90 of the Odisha Service Code during the suspension period.