Administration files missing complaint against Excise officer & two employees in Chamoli

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE | Jyotirmath 

The police are yet to find the missing Chamoli district Excise officer Durgesh Kumar Tripathi whose missing complaint was filed by the district administration on Wednesday. The administration has filed a missing persons complaint for two employees of the Excise department along with Tripathi.

The officials have been reportedly untraceable since March 31, raising concerns within the administration. Gopeshwar police station in-charge Deepak Chaurasia confirmed on Thursday that a missing complaint had been registered based on a report from revenue sub-inspector Chandra Singh Butola.

The complaint states that Tripathi, who resides in a government residence at Kund Colony, has been out of contact since March 31. Besides this, two other employees of the district excise office, assistant accountant Dheeraj Bhatt (26) and junior assistant Manish Rawat (28), have also been missing from the office since Monday morning.

The Chamoli superintendent of police Sarvesh Panwar told The Pioneer that police have been unable to establish contact with the missing officials as of late Thursday. The teams are investigating the matter, he said. It is being reported that the situation escalated after Chamoli district magistrate Sandeep Tiwari conducted a surprise inspection of the district excise office on Tuesday. During the inspection, he found that Tripathi and two employees were absent from duty.

In response to their absence, the DM ordered a one-day salary deduction for all three officials. He also recommended service break action against Tripathi and halted salary increments for the two other employees. The SP said that the investigations are ongoing to determine the circumstances surrounding their disappearance.