Trouble mounts for IPS officers Ashish Singh and DS Kutey as Home Department initiates action 

Trouble mounted for IPS officers Ashish Singh and DS Kutey as the Home Department has started the process of initiating enquiry against them. 

The Home Department has served memorandums to the IPS officers wherein they have been directed to submit written statements of their defence within 30 days of receiving the memorandum. If they fail, the enquiries against them will be held ex-parte. 

The charge against IPS officer Ashish Singh, who is presently working as an OSD, Home department, is that he was allowed to avail one month of leave on medical grounds from May 4, 2024, following his application for leave and submission of the medical certificate of the treating physician. 

But the Special Medical Board at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, examined him and found him to be physically and mentally fit. The Home Department has termed this as gross misconduct. 

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Similarly, the charge against IPS officer DS Kutey, who is presently working as an OSD, Home department, is that he had unduly interfered with the work of election-related officials during the general elections 2024, particularly when the Model Code of Conduct issued by the ECI was in force. 

The State Level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) had approved a newspaper advertisement of a political party for publication during the silence period. Kutey had repeatedly called the additional CEO and Chairman of the MCMC on May 24, 2024, late evening and expressed his displeasure over the approval of the advertisement. He also asked him to withdraw the approval immediately so that the advertisement couldn’t be published on May 25, 2024. 

He had also asked Chanchal Rana, the then district election officer and Collector of Khurda and police officers to get a contesting candidate arrested on the poll date, i.e. on May 25, 2024.