BHUBANESWAR: The Commissionerate Police have registered a sexual harassment case against DG-rank IPS officer Susanta Kumar Nath, prompting the state government to remove him as DG prisons on Sunday and appoint him as officer on special duty (OSD) in the Home Department, a posting generally considered punitive.The Cuttack Urban Police District (UPD) registered the case against 59-year-old Nath, a 1993-batch officer, and his alleged associate, Kuldeep Rath, on Saturday, based on a complaint filed by a former woman jailer. Police also informed the Home Department about the registration of the case and the allegations against Nath.According to the FIR, a copy of which is with TOI, the complainant alleged that Rath contacted her on Nath’s behalf in July 2025 and subsequently sent messages in August and September 2025, inviting her to meet the IPS officer for dinner at two hotels in Cuttack. She claimed that she declined all such invitations.“Rath conveyed Nath’s desire to meet me alone at hotels. Such conduct of Nath and Rath reflected clear sexual intent and amounted to unwelcome sexual advances,” she alleged.She further alleged that after she rejected the requests, Nath targeted her and suspended her in February 2026. The complainant claimed that 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 from the jail in October 2025.Efforts to reach Nath and Rath for comment were unsuccessful.The government 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, ahead of the Supreme Court’s verdict, expected this month. Nath was among the 11 senior IPS officers whose names were forwarded by the state government to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in May for consideration as successor to former DGP Y B Khurania, who retired in August.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 government had acted arbitrarily by withdrawing his integrity certificate and excluding him from consideration despite there being no proven allegations of wrongdoing against him.