Complaint lodged against senior police officer in Odisha

A complaint has been lodged against Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi for allegedly misbehaving with a person, an official said on Saturday.

Sasanka Sekhar Sahu, president of Odisha Petroleum Dealers' Association, lodged the complaint with the Capital police station alleging that Sarangi had misbehaved with him when he had gone to the police commissioner's office on October 21.

Sarangi, however, denied the allegation.

"The allegation is false, fabricated and not based on facts. Yes, he had come to my office. But, I could not have spare time to meet him because of other engagements. I had to rush to a peace committee meeting and therefore could not discuss his issues," the police commissioner said.

Later, the CP's office issued a clarification note saying that "the petrol pump owner is opposing setting up of another petrol pump by a petroleum marketing company".

Sahu claimed that he had earlier submitted an application to Raj Bhavan, protesting the move to set up a petrol pump at Gandamunda in the city and the office of Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal had forwarded the letter to Sarangi's office.

"I went to his office to know what action has been taken by the police. Sarangi asked me to take back the application and submit to the governor or other officials," the complainant alleged.

The letter received from the governor's office has been "sent to DCP, Bhubaneswar for enquiry, though the matter is mostly a commercial decision of the petroleum company", the CP's office said.