Bhubaneswar, July 28: The state vigilance today raided the house of a watchman posted at a check post on the road linking Orissa and Jharkhand in Sundergarh district and seized properties worth over a crore.
Bignesh Swain (47), posted at Birmitrapur check post, is not a regular government servant and is in a nominal pay role (NMR).
Vigilance officials said that Swain was getting a consolidated salary of Rs 2,500 per month, but managed to accumulate properties more than one crore.
After they received a tip off about his property, vigilance sleuths raided his four houses at Biramitrapur-Ali, Belpada and UU 15 at the civil township in Rourkela.
According to initial estimates, the Biramitrapur house is valued at Rs 46 lakh, the house at Ali at Rs 15 lakh, and the one at Belpada is valued at Rs 18 lakh. The house at Rourkela has not yet been valued yet.
“The investigation is on. So, it is very difficult to make a statement on his entire property list,” a vigilance official said.
Swain has been posted at that gate on the Orissa- Jharkhand border for the past 23 years. Minerals are transported between the two states on this route.
Swain allegedly used to collect Rs 1,000 from each truck passing through the gate. On an average, nearly 300 to 400 trucks pass through the gates.
“Vigilance sleuths are also trying to ascertain whether he used to split collected bribes among the officials posted at the gate,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
In November last year, vigilance sleuths had raided the house of three motor vehicle inspectors (MVI), Mahadeb Pati, Manoj Behera and Pramod Sahu.
During the raid, it came to light that the accused had invested more than Rs 109 crore in three housing complexes in the city.
Pati and the two others MVIs had floated a construction company “Aryan Infrastructure” in an attempt to convert black money into white. The company then built three housing complexes — Arya Palli, Arya Bhumi and Arya Nilay — in the city. A total of 172 flats and four apartments have come in these housing complexes.
