Director General of Police (DGP), HRPC Odisha on Thursday sent a notice to IPS officer, NB Bharathi who has been absent from duty since 2017. The IPS officer has been asked to reply within 15 days, failing which proceedings against her would be disposed off ex-parte.
Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against her by the Odisha Home Department in 2017 and an inquiry was held in 2020. However, she failed to attend the proceedings despite repeated notices to her. Hence, proceedings continued ex-parte.
After the enquiry, Bharathi was held guilty on charges of gross misconduct, disobedience of lawful order and dereliction of duty. The Home Department sent a notice in 2022 with the copy of the inquiry report in which she was called upon to submit her written representation or submission.
Copy of inquiry report along with enclosures were sent to her through registered post in her three available address in 2022 with a request to return the 2nd copy with her acknowledgement for further action in the matter. But two letters returned undelivered.
As per the DGP, “Under these circumstance, she has been informed to submit her written representation or submission if she desires so on the findings of the inquiry officer within fifteen days from the date of advertisement of this notice in daily newspapers. If no written statement/ representation is received within the specified date, it would be presumed that she has no reasonable explanation to offer on the findings of the Inquiry Officer and the Proceeding would be disposed off ex-parte.”
Bharathi, a 1998-batch IPS officer posted as inspector general (IG) with the State police's Human Rights Protection Cell (HRPC), has been absent from office since November 22, 2017 without any prior intimation or leave application. She had reportedly gone to Gajapati for an annual inspection without getting her official tour programme approved by the competent authority. As per reports, she also defied a recall notice issued by the competent authority and has not reported to work since.
(Reported By Alok Mohanty, OTV)