The homoeopathy dispensary set up at the house of tainted IAS officer Sanjeev Ray. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 2: Taking a leaf out of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s book, the Orissa government today turned the confiscated house of tainted IAS officer Sanjeev Ray into a homoeopathy dispensary. Ray, who was convicted in a disproportionate assets case, retired from the service in 2004.

The homoeopathy dispensary was opened in the two-storey building at Gandamunda near Jagamara in the city. Around 40 patients tuned up at the dispensary today, which coincided with the celebration of the vigilance awareness week.

On September 8, Nitish had turned the confiscated building of IAS officer Shiv Shankar Verma into a primary school at Rukunpura in Musahri, a suburb of Patna.

Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced the government’s decision at a function here to mark the vigilance awareness week. He said: “Our government has decided to put such confiscated properties to public use.”

On October 28, police, following a special order from the special vigilance court, evicted Ray, former additional secretary, cooperation department, from his house in Gandamunda. The disproportionate assets case dates back to 2001 when he was the vice-chairman of Cuttack Development Authority.

Ray was pronounced guilty and awarded a three-year jail term along with Rs 1 lakh fine by the court on January 25. He was found guilty of possessing disproportionate assets worth Rs 15,48,017. The court had asked for the seizure of assets on August 20. Several bank accounts of Ray and his family have been seized.

Ray has filed a case in the high court pleading against the auctioning of his house. Apart from Ray, the court also directed for the confiscation of the houses of former IAS officer Ramesh Chandra Behera and retried IPS officer Kali Charan Mohapatra.

Vigilance director Anup Patnaik said: “The vigilance is now after the big fish. Ninety-five cases have been registered against 40 IAS officers. Of these, chargesheets have been filed in 32 cases against 13 IAS officers. We have moved court to confiscate properties in 27 disproportionate assets cases.”

Similarly, 11 cases have been registered against seven IPS officers, of which chargesheets have been placed in 10 cases against six IPS officers. On the other hand, 30 cases have been registered by the vigilance so far against 23 Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers and in nine cases, chargesheets have been filed against 10 IFS officers.

Patnaik added that this year, the state vigilance has already registered 347 cases against 66 Class-I, 66 Class-II, 265 Class-III and 11 Class-IV government employees, 64 other public servants and 113 private persons.

The government’s decision to declare the building as a homoeopathic dispensary was so swift that no one got to know about it till the last moment. On Tuesday night, all the doctors and staff were asked to report to duty on Wednesday morning at Khandagiri police station. The police took them to Ray’s house. The police opened the door and the ground floor was cleaned swiftly. The dispensary was opened within a short time.

Director of homoeopathy and Indian medicines Mahendra Mallick said: “The dispensary will run on all days except Thursday. Patients will be given medicines free of cost.”

Earlier, a primary school was run in the ground floor of Ray’s house while his family stayed on the first floor.

Following the eviction, the primary school was shifted to the local club building and Ray’s family, including his wife and three daughters, moved to a lodge. The first floor of the house is still locked.