Probe against Odisha CM’s PSO for dozing off on duty

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 21:

A day after leading vernacular daily ‘Sambad’ published photographs of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his personal security officer (PSO) dozing off at a public function, the state government on Tuesday launched a probe to determine whether there had been any security lapse on the part of the PSO.

The alert lensman of the media house captured the napping moments in which the PSO, Deputy Commandant Jawahar Patel, took a power nap behind Chief Minister’s seat in the dais at the inaugural function of the platinum jubilee celebration of Indian Road Congress (IRC) here on Monday.

While one of the two photographs showed the Chief Minister yawning and the PSO asleep behind him, the second showed both of them fast asleep.

Even before his inaugural address, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was seen yawning and eventually snoozing in the dais.

As the tell-all pictures were a source of embarrassment for the ruling BJD and the partymen, an explanation was sought from the security officer whether he was sleeping. As his reply was found unsatisfactory, a probe has been ordered by the Home department into the incident.

The probe will be conducted by an SP rank officer. Stills and video tapes have been sought to ascertain the turth about the incident, a source privy to the development revealed.

As per established standard procedure, the PSO is supposed to keep standing behind the Chief Minister right through the meeting keeping a bird’s eye view on any suspicious movement. The fact that the PSO was found sitting itself was a violation of the security detail.

That he actually dozed off has put a serious mark over the security of the Chief Minister and put the special branch police, which is in charge of the Chief Minister’s security, in the dock.