Bhubaneswar: The state govt removed IPS officer Susanta Kumar Nath from the post of DG prisons on Sunday and appointed him as an officer on special duty in the home department, a posting generally considered punitive, after the commissionerate police registered a sexual harassment case against him on Saturday.Cuttack urban police district registered the case against 59-year-old Nath, a 1993-batch officer, and his alleged associate Kuldeep Rath, based on a complaint filed by a suspended woman jailer. Police also informed the home department about the case.According to an FIR, a copy of which TOI has, the complainant alleged that Rath contacted her in July 2025 on Nath’s behalf and later sent messages in Aug and Sept inviting her to meet the IPS officer for dinner at two hotels in Cuttack. She claimed she declined the invitations.“Rath conveyed Nath’s desire to meet me alone at hotels. Such conduct by Nath and Rath reflected clear sexual intent and amounted to unwelcome advances,” she alleged.She further alleged that after the episode, Nath suspended her in Feb 2026. The complainant claimed her suspension came after she lodged an FIR against former Choudwar jail superintendent Sujit Raula, who had allegedly forged her signature and blamed her for security lapses that led to the escape of two murder accused in Oct 2025.Efforts to reach Nath and Rath for comments were unsuccessful.The govt said Nath was shifted from the DG prisons’ post to facilitate a fair and impartial investigation. “Let the police investigate and ascertain the facts,” a home department official said.A police officer said investigators would examine both Nath and Rath as part of the probe.The case is likely to cast a shadow over Nath’s prospects in the selection process for Odisha’s next director general of police (DGP) ahead of Supreme Court’s verdict, expected this month. Nath was among 11 senior IPS officers whose names were forwarded by the state govt to the Union Public Service Commission in May for consideration as successor to former DGP Y B Khurania, who retired in Aug.However, the state later withdrew Nath’s name from the panel after the CBI indicated that he might need to be questioned in connection with the SI recruitment test scam. Nath subsequently moved the Supreme Court, alleging that the state govt acted arbitrarily by withdrawing his integrity certificate and excluding him from consideration despite no proven allegations of wrongdoing against him.