Bhubaneswar, Sept. 29: Vigilance sleuths today conducted raids at the residence of former chairman of the Orissa Co-operative Housing Corporation (OCHC) for allegedly amassing properties disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Ray, a prominent BJP leader, was the chairperson of the corporation until the government superseded him and appointed a new chairperson last week.

A few other co-operative bodies have been dissolved by the government. Ray had taken over the office when the BJP and the BJD were sharing power in the state.

“It’s political vendetta. I had planned to approach the high court today against the government’s decision to supersede. But, I was not able to move court because of the vigilance raids,” Ray told The Telegraph.

The vigilance sleuths conducted simultaneous raids at five different places in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Jagatsinghpur.

Vigilance officials said they raided his residence at Rajabagicha in Cuttack. The cost of the house has been estimated at Rs 50 lakh. Another team raided his father-in-law’s house in the same locality. Besides, a team also conducted raids at his native place in Shivapur of Jagatsinghpur.

The police alleged Ray was also found to own a four-storey building in Sector VI in Cuttack which was valued at more than Rs 80 lakh.

“He also runs a real estate company at Madhusudan Nagar in Bhubaneswar in his wife’s name,” said a vigilance official. The teams have seized two trucks, two cars and many documents from him.

The vigilance officials found that nearly Rs 86 lakh have been invested by Ray in the real estate company, Sahaya Real Estate, which is being run by his wife.

Sources in the vigilance said there were charges against Ray for allegedly showing “undue favour to builders”, causing a loss of nearly Rs 2.5 crore to the state government. In 2009, the police had registered two cases against him.