Bhubaneswar, May 13: Vigilance sleuths today raided the house of a municipal corporation employee and recovered moveable and immovable assets worth Rs 2.3 crore, including Rs 4.09 lakh in cash.
The sleuths conducted search operations at three locations, including the residence of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) employee Golakha Chandra Pradhan at Sunderapada. There were allegations of acquisition and possession of disproportionate assets against the Class III employee.
"We detected deposits worth Rs 28 lakh in different bank accounts and found gold ornaments weighing 566gm during the search operation. We are investigating further to find out how he managed to accumulate the assets," said an official of the vigilance department. Pradhan joined the civic body in 1997 and has since continued in the same post since then.
The officials also discovered that he had a two-storey house and another single-storey one at Kapila Prasad on the city outskirts. The properties are worth Rs 60 lakh.
"Besides, we have found a kalyan mandap complex with four buildings on 8,000sqft that belonged to him. The market value of the complex is Rs 50.33 lakh. We found another building spread over 7,000sqft worth Rs 31 lakh. The building was also being used as a kalyan mandap," said a vigilance official. Bhubaneswar vigilance division superintendent of police Basanta Kumar Panigrahi said they were interrogating Pradhan for further clues.
"He has amassed property worth crores despite being a Class III employee. It raises suspicion. We are probing into the matter," Panigrahi said.
This is not the first case of government officials amassing wealth. On February 24, the vigilance department raided the houses of senior Odisha Forest Service official Sudhansu Sekhar Mishra and had found moveable and immovable assets worth Rs 6 crore, including Rs 93 lakh in cash. Mishra, who was then posted as Athagarh divisional forest officer, was later arrested. The sleuths had also found gold ornaments and gold coins weighing 551gms during the search operation as well as fixed deposits worth Rs 2.61 crore.
The involvement of the state's Class I and Class II officials in vigilance cases has been on the rise recently. Statistics reveal that while 48 Class I officials were booked in 2013, the number went up to 74 and 75 in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Similarly, the number of Class II officials booked in vigilance cases stood at 97 in 2015 against 43 in 2014.