Prateek Tanmay
2 min readBhubaneswarMay 30, 2026 06:15 AM IST
A woman inspector of the Odisha police, recently suspended over allegations of custodial torture, was suspended earlier too – twice in six years. She was given a clean chit in one of those instances.
The inspector, Sandhyarani Jena, was recently posted at the Talchua Marine police station in coastal Kendrapada district, and was suspended on Wednesday for “gross misconduct and dereliction of duty” after a 55-year-old woman and her 31-year-old son lodged a custodial torture complaint. The mother and son were summoned to the police station by Jena over a domestic dispute case.
A departmental probe has also been ordered against Jena’s conduct based on which further action will be initiated against her, officials said. Jena did not respond to calls and messages seeking a comment.
According to the complainants, the officer assaulted the 55-year-old and disrobed her. The son was allegedly tortured in police custody, they claimed.
This is not the first time the policewoman has faced action. In 2020, when Jena was posted as inspector-in-charge at Patana police station in Keonjhar, she was suspended after a purported video of her thrashing a youth during the Covid lockdown emerged. She was reinstated after a departmental inquiry gave her a clean chit.
In 2024, Jena was suspended while she was posted as the inspector-in-charge at Lakhanpur in Jharsuguda. Officials said she was accused of shifting the bodies of three accident victims from her jurisdiction to the limits of a neighbouring police station to avoid the investigation and other formalities. She was eventually reinstated, a senior officer said.
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