Bhubaneswar, Feb. 15: Vigilance sleuths today detained IAS officer and managing director of the Odisha Small Industries Corporation Limited Partha Sarathi Mishra after cash worth Rs 2.14 lakh was found from his official vehicle about 100 meters away from his office at Khapuria in Cuttack.

Mishra, originally an OAS-cadre officer who was promoted to the IAS rank, had in February 2014 been removed from the post of dean of students' welfare at Ravenshaw University after a postgraduate student had levelled sexual harassment charges against him.

Vigilance sleuths today conducted simultaneous raids on his office in Khapuria, his government quarters at Unit-II in Bhubaneswar and his residence at Bajrakabati Road in Cuttack.

"We had received information about collection of huge amount of ill-gotten money by the officer and subsequently intercepted his official car about a hundred meters away from his office. The money was found in five envelops in the vehicle. The officer so far has failed to explain the source of the money," said director, vigilance, R.P. Sharma.

The 45-year-old bureaucrat had courted controversy several times. A final-year computer science student of Ravenshaw University had in February 2014 alleged that Mishra had molested her when she turned down his marriage proposals. Mishra was heading the placement cell of the university then.

Vigilance cases against Class-I and Class-II officials of the state government are on the rise. Statistics reveal while 48 Class-I officials were booked in 2013, the number went to 162 in 2016. Similarly, the number of Class-II officials booked stood at 36 in 2013 with the number increasingto 104 in 2016.