A special vigilance court on Friday directed the Patna district administration to initiate the process to confiscate the disproportionate assets of a former executive engineer of rural works department, Srikant Prasad.

Prasad had been accused of accumulating disproportionate assets worth Rs 42.87 crore. The former executive engineer has a house at Gardanibagh and three-cottah land at Chitkohra in Patna. He had also invested in insurance policies and had fixed deposits in banks.

A vigilance court headed by Vipul Sinha passed the order under the sections of Bihar Special Courts Act 2009. Initially, Prasad had been asked to handover his movable and immovable property within a stipulated period failing which the district administration would initiate the confiscation process.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal has been directed to ensure the compliance of the court order.

The vigilance bureau caught Prasad, then posted in Aurangabad, accepting Rs 1.3 lakh as bribe on June 4, 2009. During search of his residential premises, the bureau officials had seized documents related to land purchase and other investments.

Special public prosecutor (vigilance) Rajesh Kumar said a disproportionate assets case was registered against Prasad on August 3, 2009, and a chargesheet was submitted in the court on October 1, 2009.

The process to confiscate his disproportionate property was initiated soon after the chargesheet was filed.

The check period of his income was from January 20, 1987, to June 4, 2009. Prasad had joined the service as assistant engineer on January 20, 1987. On Friday, the court issued appropriate orders to confiscate the unaccounted wealth of the former executive engineer.

Earlier, disproportionate assets of senior IAS officer S.S. Verma, former director-general of police Narayan Mishra, former motor vehicles inspector (Aurangabad) Raghuvansh Kunwar and Patna treasury assistant Girish Kumar had been confiscated.