Times of India: Bhubaneswar: Wednesday, 17 December 2025.
Three RTI campaigners, who were booked by city police in 2024 for allegedly circulating “fake and misleading” information about the security cover of ex-CM Naveen Patnaik’s aide and former BJD member V K Pandian, have now produced fresh information to challenge the police action against them.
“Police accused us of
spreading lies even though the information we shared was obtained through RTI
regarding Pandian’s security cover. On Nov 11, we again sought the same details
from the commissionerate police. The reply we received matched the earlier one.
This clearly proves we were falsely implicated, only because Pandian was highly
influential,” said RTI campaigner Prakash Das.
According to the RTI response, Pandian was provided with 2 personal security officers, 1 havildar, 4 armed police reserve personnel as house guards, 1-4 escorts in a vehicle during road journeys, 4 women constables, and 1 section force. All of these were sanctioned by the previous BJD govt.
In April 2024, Saheed Nagar police registered a case against Das, Srikant Pakal and Pradip Pradhan, days after they released a letter at a press conference detailing Pandian’s security cover. Then police commissioner Sanjeeb Panda called the letter “forged” and denied that such information was ever provided by the commissionerate police. Subsequently, a case was filed against the trio.
Three RTI campaigners, who were booked by city police in 2024 for allegedly circulating “fake and misleading” information about the security cover of ex-CM Naveen Patnaik’s aide and former BJD member V K Pandian, have now produced fresh information to challenge the police action against them.
According to the RTI response, Pandian was provided with 2 personal security officers, 1 havildar, 4 armed police reserve personnel as house guards, 1-4 escorts in a vehicle during road journeys, 4 women constables, and 1 section force. All of these were sanctioned by the previous BJD govt.
In April 2024, Saheed Nagar police registered a case against Das, Srikant Pakal and Pradip Pradhan, days after they released a letter at a press conference detailing Pandian’s security cover. Then police commissioner Sanjeeb Panda called the letter “forged” and denied that such information was ever provided by the commissionerate police. Subsequently, a case was filed against the trio.
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