3 min readBhubaneswarApr 18, 2026 06:52 AM IST
The Odisha Raj Bhavan on Friday constituted a four-member committee of senior officers to verify allegations of “high-handed treatment” of two IRS officers by the aide-de-camp (police) and security personnel.
Officials said the panel has been tasked with examining the allegations and submitting its report by Monday. “The findings of the committee will be placed before the Governor for further action,” an official said. It will also probe the sequence of events leading to the incident.
The two IRS officers — a joint commissioner of the 2015 batch and an assistant commissioner of the 2023 batch — were allegedly turned away from the Raj Bhavan campus and taken to the Capital police station in a police vehicle on Thursday.
The incident occurred when they were on official duty to coordinate the visit of the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (PCCIT), Odisha, who paid a courtesy visit to the Governor with a delegation.
The committee was formed after PCCIT D Sudhakara Rao, in a strongly worded letter to the secretary to the Governor, termed the incident “deeply distressing”.
Stating that such high-handedness towards senior civil servants is an affront to the dignity of their office, the PCCIT urged the Raj Bhavan to examine the conduct of the security staff and the ADC (Police), an IPS officer of the 2021 batch.
As per a petition filed by one of the IRS officers, when they were waiting in a hall near the aide-de-camp’s chamber, 4-5 policemen came and asked them to go with them, saying that they had gained unauthorised entry into Raj Bhavan. This, despite the IRS officers allegedly sharing their identity and telling them that they were waiting there with the knowledge of the ADC (Navy) and OSD to the Governor.
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“We cooperated with them, and offered to leave in our office vehicles. However, they told us to come with them in their police vehicle, and we cooperated,” read the petition by the official.
From Raj Bhavan, the officers were allegedly taken directly to the Capital Police Station.
Though the officers were allowed to leave, they said they were again called to the police station in the afternoon, as a security personnel member at Raj Bhavan had complained that one of the two officers seemed to be in a drunken state and both had to be removed.
“We humbly offered ourselves for a breath analyser test, which was humbly declined by the police officers at the PS, stating quietly clearly that there were absolutely no such complaints about either of us, being in a state of inebriation, and that it was not required,” reads the petition.
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One of the IRS officers, who is from Odisha, said the situation was embarrassing for him as his father had served in the Raj Bhavan for over 34 years and retired last November at the rank of Deputy Secretary to Governor. The officer said he along with his father had met the governor on multiple occasions earlier.
