Patna: Vinay Kumar Sinha, the arrested public health and engineering department (PHED) executive engineer who investigators allege is the mastermind of the toilet scam, has confessed to owning property worth over Rs 100 crore, police said.

Sinha, whom the special investigation team (SIT) of Patna police arrested from Deoria district in Uttar Pradesh on Monday night, has, according to the police, revealed he owns over 40 flats in Patna and other cities.

"Vinay (Sinha), the kingpin of the toilet scam, has confessed to owning property over Rs 100 crore and has invested the money in real estate and land," Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj said.

The revelation has prompted the police to suspect Sinha's involvement in several other scams while working at the PHED.

The assets of Sinha, who belongs to a well-to-do family in Nalanda district, includes his ancestral property at Kankarbagh in Patna. He also owns a large plot worth over Rs 15 crore behind P&M Mall.

In 2008, Sinha came in contact with arrested PHED accountant Biteshwar Prasad and since then the two have worked in connivance, siphoning off PHED funds meant for various schemes.

Sinha was transferred to Muzaffarpur but because of his influence in the higher echelons, he returned to the headquarters in Patna.

Sinha's elder brother Vinod Kumar Sinha is a neurosurgeon in the United States. His daughter and son-in-law live in Gurgaon while his son is a final-year MBBS student of Manipal University.

"The police were able to nab Vinay Sinha after scanning the family's background," a senior police officer looking after the investigation said on the condition of anonymity. "Sinha had also visited Gurgaon, where his daughter and son-in-law live, but would frequently change his location to evade arrest."

Sinha went on the run ever since the scam surfaced in the first week of November. He criss-crossed across the country taking shelter in places such as Bangalore, Gurgaon, Delhi and in Andhra Pradesh. To hide his identity, he kept a low profile, living in medium-range hotels and commuting by bus.

"Sinha was able to keep the police off his trail for around four weeks as he did not have a permanent cellphone number," the police officer said. "He used new SIM cards in every city."

Also, he stayed out all day, returning to his hotel room only at night.