Bhubaneswar, Nov. 29: He earns just Rs 20,000 a month but has 10 plots in the city, two buildings and three cars. This is what the Odisha vigilance found when they raided the house of Mahesh Prusty, 51, a draftsman working on ground water survey in the irrigation wing of the water resources department.
Apart from the plots and buildings, Prusty, who turned out to be a crorepati, has an apartment in Cuttack. He owns a Mitsubishi Lancer, a Honda City and a Tata Indigo. The vigilance also found Rs 2 lakh in his bank account.
Superintendent of police (SP), vigilance, Jagannath Nayak said: “We had received several complaints about him. Based on the information, our officials raided his house and found properties disproportionate to his known source of income.”
Vigilance officials said Prusty began working in 1983 and in a span of 28 years, managed to amass huge wealth. Prusty’s wealth went up significantly since his 1996 posting to Bhubaneswar, when the water resources department established its groundwater survey wing in Unit-VIII.
Being a draftsman, Prusty is a sound professional and knows how to prepare various designs on topography and land mapping. This helped him involve himself in the land business, which showed an upward trend in 2000. He also does land mapping for a number of builders.
“The official code of conduct debars a government employee from involving himself in any kind of business. Prusty did not tell anyone about his business. Investigation is on and more details will be available soon,” said Nayak.
Vigilance officials said they had also seized Rs 84,300 in cash during the raid, during which they also found out about one double-storeyed and one single-storeyed buildings belonging to him in Khandagiri. Prusty had bought as many as 10 residential plots in Bhubaneswar. “When people are finding it difficult to buy even a single plot, this draftsman managed to buy 10,” said a senior vigilance officer.
The vigilance officials said he earned money by misusing his official position. When the vigilance sleuths took Prusty to his office, he looked nervous.
