Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today placed to police personnel on suspension for alleged lapses in investigation and subsequent closure of Pramodini Roul acid attack case.

Patnaik suspended the two cops – former Jagatsinghpur DSP RK Jena, (now Nabarangpur SDPO) and Inspector Sankarsan Dalai, now posted in Balasore – for delaying probe and not initiating appropriate action in the sensitive case.

The Chief Minister directed DGP RP Sharma to initiate disciplinary action against the duo.

This comes four days after two persons including the prime accused were arrested from Kolkata. Prime accused Santosh Bedanta – an Indian Army Jawan posted at Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir – along with his his associate Biswajit Dalsinghray from Nayagarh, were arrested by special squad of Jagatsinghpur police from the capital city.

Worth mentioning, Pramodini was allegedly attacked with acid by the accused at Tirtol in Jagatsinghpur district in 2009. Later, a case (79/2009) was registered in Tirtol police station. However, the investigating officers reportedly did not take the probe in right direction leading to closure of the case.

publive-image Pramodini Roul and other acid attack survivors with Naveen Patnaik.

On November 16 this year, Promodini had met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at state secretariat where she drew attention of the latter towards the case. Subsequently, Patnaik expressed his displeasure and directed the authorities to take steps towards arrest of the accused.

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The case was reopened and the duo was arrested in 10 days after Patnaik’s order.

Expressing deep anguish over negligence in probe of such sensitive cases, Patnaik directed DGP to furnish status report of all cases pertaining to women and children in various police stations within 15 days.

“Laxity in probe of various criminal cases related to women and children is not acceptable. Stringent action will be initiated against those found not delivering their duties diligently,” Patnaik said in a release.

Besides, Patnaik also took to Twitter where he wrote: