Vigilance department of Odisha on Friday registered its highest ever cash seizure from a Government official when it recovered cash of ₹41.77 lakh from an engineer at tribal development agency.
Upon receiving allegation of possession of assets disproportionate to the known sources of income, the anti-corruption sleuths had carried simultaneous searches at 11 places belonging to Santosh Kumar Das, Assistant Engineer, Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Baripada and his relatives.
The vigilance department came across huge properties accumulated by Mr. Das. Officials were particularly surprised to find huge amounts of currency with the engineer.
The ITDA engineer surpassed Pratap Kumar Samal, Deputy Manager, Odisha Police Housing and Welfare Corporation, who was arrested for the possession of ₹38,12,900 earlier this month. Mr. Samal was even found throwing cartons filled with currency notes to a neighbour’s house to escape from vigilance scrutiny.
Similarly, the anti-corruption officials seized ₹16.50 lakh from Narottam Behera, Regional Officer of Odisha State Pollution Control Board, last month.
In the latest search, the vigilance department found information of two four-storeyed buildings belonging to Mr. Das in Bhubaneswar and Balasore. Besides, the engineer was found to have purchased one apartment and a half-constructed house in Bhubaneswar.
Eleven teams of Odisha Vigilance led by 10 Deputy Superintendents of Police, four inspectors and 30 other staff were part of the search teams.
