Bijepur: A team of Odisha Vigilance officials detained Bijepur block development officer (BDO) Padmanabha Samantaray early Sunday morning for allegedly carrying Rs 3.5 lakh unaccounted cash.
According to a source, Samantaray was on his way to Bhubaneswar from Bijepur area of Bargarh district in a car when the anti-corruption agency sleuths intercepted the vehicle at Binika this morning.
From Bhubaneswar, the BDO would have proceeded to his ancestral house at Gadachandapur village in Puri district, the source said.
Acting on a tip-off, the Vigilance team followed the official and stopped him near Mahanadi bridge on Binika-Sonepur road in Bargarh district.
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Following a thorough search of the car, the Vigilance team found Rs 3.5 lakh in cash which the BDO could not account for satisfactorily. He was taken to the Vigilance office in Sonepur for further interrogation.
Later in the day, houses owned by Samantaray in Bargarh, Puri and Bhubaneswar were raided by the Vigilance officials. Cash of Rs 42,700 was recovered from his government residence at Bijepur town. Probe is still underway, a Vigilance official informed.
PNN
