Rourkela, Jan. 10: The CBI today opened the locker of arrested Rourkela Steel Plant executive director (works) Bhubaneswar Prasad Verma and found gold jewellery worth Rs 15 lakh and diamonds worth Rs 6.5 lakh.

The locker - at the State Bank of India's Ambagaon branch -was opened in presence of the bank officials, jewellers, family members and CBI officials.

The bank's official jewellers were called to weigh and value the ornaments found in the locker. A bank official who did not want to be named confirmed the seizure.

SBI regional manager B.B. Das was not available for comment.

Yesterday, after Verma's arrest and shifting to Bhubaneswar, the CBI looked into his bank records and found Rs 29 lakh in his bank account. Rs 20 lakh cash in the new Rs 2,000 notes was found from his official residence in Sector 19.

The CBI also took into custody a contractor, B.K Singh, who allegedly paid Rs 1 lakh as bribe to Verma.

The CBI had been keeping a watch on Verma for some time.

On the evening of January 8, the central agency finally raided his house. The raid continued well into the night and then he was taken into custody.