Bhubaneswar, Oct. 16: Vigilance sleuths today arrested a retired OAS officer and former land acquisition officer of Khurdha district on charges of misappropriation of funds in connection with land acquisition for a proposed bird sanctuary at Barang on the city outskirts.

Officials arrested Ramachandra Mohanty, 65, from Khandagiri. They said the scam involving around Rs 1 crore took place in 2008-09 when the state government started acquiring about 50 acres for the sanctuary at Jujhagarh village.

Mohanty, in connivance of an advocate Pravakar Karan, misappropriated the money, which was supposed to be given to the real landowners who had given their plots for the project.

"Karan forged the power of attorney and misappropriated the amount along with Mohanty and other accused," said Basanta Kumar Panigrahi, SP of Bhubaneswar division of Vigilance.

The advocate was arrested in March this year in connection with the case. The vigilance had lodged the case in December last year.

Vigilance in March this year had also arrested junior clerk of land acquisition office, Khordha collectorate, Jitendra Kumar Mishra in connection with the scam. Vigilance officials said other retired OAS officers Suryamani Bhatta and Narendra Dash, who were also involved in the scam, are on bail.

Both the OAS officers were posted as land acquisition officers after Mohanty retired.

Vigilance sources said the retired OAS had also approached the Orissa High Court seeking an anticipatory bail but the court rejected that application.

"All the accused were involved in manipulating documents and subsequently using the forged documents as genuine for pecuniary gain and misappropriation of huge compensation amount in their favour instead of delivering the money to the real landowners," said an official.

Officials in the forest department said the patch of land would have been converted into a bird sanctuary, which would have been subsequently merged with the Nandankanan Biological Park.

Prisoners flee

Two undertrial prisoners escaped from near the Bargrah sub jail while they were being brought to the jail from the court on Friday.

The duo, Amit Mallick of Katkiapara in Bargarh town and Dilip Sahu of Katapali in Bargarh district, were arrested for being involved in a case of robbery.