Bank lockers of PWD engineer’s wife yield Rs. 57 lakh, 9 kg gold, 5 kg silver in Nashik

May 09, 2013 05:19 pm | Updated June 10, 2016 11:29 am IST - Nashik

Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday recovered cash worth Rs 57,69,000 and over 9 Kg of gold from two bank lockers of Swati Chikhlikar, wife of suspended PWD executive engineer (Nashik north) Satish Chikhlikar, besides 5 Kg of silver from another locker in her name.

The seizure is collectively estimated over Rs 3,27,29,000, according to a senior ACB officer.

“ACB seized cash of Rs 57,69,000, 9.558 kg of gold, including gold biscuits weighing 6.312 kg and gold ornaments of 3.246 kg, having a total value of Rs 2.67 crore from two lockers of the Ahmednagar Merchants Co-operative Bank, which are in name of Swati Chikhlikar”, ACB SP Shashikant Mahavarkar told reporters in Nashik.

Besides, 5.66 kg of silver worth Rs 2.60 lakh was recovered from another locker in Swati’s name at Ahmednagar branch of the State Bank of Hyderabad.

“The total value of the cash, gold and silver is estimated over Rs 3,27,29,000”, the SP said.

With this seizure, the total value of allegedly ill-gotten assets of the tainted executive engineer has mounted to Rs 17,55,80,292, the officer said.

Responding to a query, Mr. Mahavarkar said Swati could be made a co-accused in the bribery scandal if it is established during investigation that she abetted her husband in the crime.

Chikhlikar and his colleague PWD Section Engineer Jagdish Wagh were caught red-handed by ACB on April 30 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 22,000 from a complainant in exchange of awarding a road maintenance contract.

Mr. Mahavarkar said Wagh’s unearthed assets included Rs 47.13 lakh cash, 1,117 gram gold worth Rs 31.58 lakh, Rs 8 lakh in fixed deposits and document of plots totalling Rs 86.71 lakh.

A local court had remanded the duo in ACB custody which is expiring on Friday.

The probe has revealed that Chikhalikar allegedly kept properties like farm lands, plots and houses in the name of his brother-in-law Subhash Ganesh Kulkarni, a resident of Johrapur under Shevgaon taluka in Ahmednagar district and at Taroda in Nanded and Mukund Nagar in Aurangabad.

The ACB officials had found documents showing that the two engineers accumulated assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The ACB had recovered a total of 78 files from Chikhalikar’s house during raids and when checked, 27 of them were found to be property-related while others included those of income tax, some vehicle documents, insurance papers and others.

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