Justice Naidu to head Kandhamal Commission

Odisha government has named Justice A S Naidu, a retired High Court Judge, the new head of the judicial commission probing the killing of VHP leader Laxmananda Saraswati and communal violence in Kandhamal thereafter, official sources said on Wednesday. The functioning of the judicial commission had come to standstill since four months due to the death of Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra, who had headed the panel. The home department had already decided to install Justice Naidu to carry forward the probe and a formal official notification in this regard is expected to be issued soon, sources said. Saraswati was killed on August 23, 2008 in Kandhamal along with four of his disciples. The entire district witnessed large scale communal violence in which 38 people were killed besides burning of over 4,000 houses. The state government had set up a judicial commission headed by Justice Mohapatra to probe the matter from September 17, 2008.