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Senior IPS officer from Odisha and State Vigilance Director Debasis Panigrahi lost his battle against Covid-19 complications while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kolkata.
Pangrahi, a 1991 batch IPS was tested positive for Coronavirus in the first week of June and was initially under home isolation. But as his health declined, he was admitted to Cuttack Ashwini Covid Hospital where he was put in ventilator support.
Later he had to be airlifted to Kolkata on June 8 as his health condition deteriorated further. Doctors had recommended his shifting to outside Odisha for advanced treatment using ECMO support as he had developed serious pneumonia and was also suffering from various other co-morbidities.
Known in the top circles of the police administration as a sweet-spoken, upright, and extremely dedicated IPS officer in his entire career, Panigrahi was also an Odia Sahitya Akademi award winner recognized in the literary field as a beautiful novelist and story writer. Several of his novels and short stories have been published in various languages like Odia, English and also translated into other languages.
Noted publisher Banoja Tripathy expressed utter shock at the demise of Panigrahi.
"I was very close to him not only professionally because of the publishing works but also personally. It is extremely sad to lose such an officer for the people and even more heartbreaking for one like me to see a great man pass away,” Tripathy said.
Sources said Panigrahi’s family is still in Cuttack as his near and dear ones were not allowed to travel with him to Kolkata in view of the Covid. So more details on how and when his body will be brought back to Odisha for the conduct of last rites are still to be revealed.
