Bhubaneswar: Vigilance sleuths of Odisha have detected assets worth crores of rupees, including 1.35 kg of gold, from the possession of an arrested GST officer, which are disproportionate to his known source of income, an official said Thursday.
Personnel of the anti-corruption department had on March 31 apprehended the GST officer of the enforcement unit in Paradeep in Jagatsinghpur district for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 80,000 from a complainant in order to release his seized documents and furnish a closure report of the GST case instituted against him.
Vigilance personnel have found 1.135 kg of gold from the lockers of the accused and his wife in three nationalised banks in Cuttack, the official said.
“The total value of gold found from the lockers of the GST officer and his spouse has been estimated at Rs 64 lakh,” he said.
The vigilance team also detected bank and insurance deposits along with mutual fund investments to the tune of Rs 1.04 crore in the names of the GST officer and his family members, the official said.
The anti-corruption sleuths also found Rs 5.4 lakh in cash from the locker of the accused and recovered Rs 1 lakh from his office, he said.
His other properties included a two-storey house worth over Rs 70 lakh in Cuttack, one four-wheeler worth Rs15 lakh, one two-wheeler and household articles worth Rs11.30 lakh, the official said.
“The department launched search operations at his properties to trace the accused’s disproportionate properties,” he said.
The vigilance team has registered a case against the accused under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, he added.
PTI
