The special vigilance unit of Bihar police has charged Varun Kumar Sikdar, deputy commissioner of commercial taxes department, with amassing property disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The unaccounted wealth of Sikdar, who is posted in Nalanda district, was detected during search of his office and residential premises in Nalanda and Patna by special vigilance unit sleuths on Saturday.

Sikdar has been charged with amassing property worth over Rs 84 lakh disproportionate to his known sources of income.

During the search, the vigilance team stumbled upon 14 passbooks, documents related to the purchase of flats and land, gold jewellery worth over Rs 18 lakh besides Rs 1.22 lakh cash from his Rajendra Nagar flat in Patna. The officials also came to know about a locker allotted to Sikdar in the Rajendra Nagar branch of Allahabad Bank.

The Allahabad Bank locker has already yielded gold jewellery worth Rs 18 lakh, an official pointed out.

Documents related to investments worth over Rs 24 lakh in insurance and fixed deposits were also recovered from Sikdar's flat. A senior official of the special vigilance unit said the value of the unaccounted assets may go up as scrutiny of the seized documents was under way.

"The bank authorities have been asked to freeze the accounts of Sikdar and his wife, who runs a boutique," he added.

According to authoritative sources, Sikdar, a resident of Jay Nagar in Madhubani district, had joined the commercial taxes department in 1993. He had served as deputy commissioner in Muzaffarpur and Patna before transferred to Nalanda about six months ago.

Sources said that Sikdar came under the scanner of the special vigilance unit after a complaint was lodged against him last week. Preliminary investigation revealed that he had accumulated disproportionate assets more than double his income and an order for raids on his office at Bari Pahari in Biharsharif and the Patna flat was procured from the special vigilance court.