Bhubaneswar, Mar 16 (IANS): The Odisha Police on Thursday issued a public notice to IPS officer N.B. Bharathi who has remained absent from duty in an unauthorised manner since 2017.

The special director general of police (human rights protection cell) issued the public notice through different newspapers on Thursday.

The public notice was issued after the Odisha Police failed to establish any contact with Bharathi through postal correspondence, e-mail and phone calls.

Bharathi, a 1998-batch Odisha cadre IPS officer, was posted as inspector general (IG) with Odisha Police's human rights protection cell (HRPC).

As per the notice, a disciplinary proceedings was initiated against Bharathi on November 23, 2017 for her alleged unauthorised absence from duty for several weeks.

On January 3, 2020, the state government entrusted senior IPS officer Vinaytosh Mishra to inquire into the disciplinary proceedings against her. Though several correspondents have been sent to the Bharathi, she did not appear before the inquiry officer to defend herself.

So, finally, through the public notice, the IPS officer has been asked to reply within 15 days.

"If no written statement/ representation is received within the specified date, it would be presumed that she has no reasonable explanation to offer on the findings of the inquiry officer and the proceeding would be disposed off ex-parte," read the notice.

If the IPS officer does not respond to this notice also, she may be dismissed from the services, sources said.