Angul: Vigilance sleuths Tuesday arrested Surendra Behera, Superintending Engineer of Irrigation Division, Angul, in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. According to the Vigilance Directorate, Behera will be forwarded to the Court of the Special Judge, Vigilance, Sundargarh, for possession of DA.
Searches conducted on his properties revealed that Behera owned assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. These include two multi-storeyed buildings, as many flats in Bhubaneswar, four high-value plots, cash amounting to Rs 2.33 lakh, and deposits of approximately Rs 54 lakh, which he failed to account for satisfactorily. In a separate case, Kumuda Chandra Pradhan, former assistant engineer (estimator) in the office of the Executive Engineer, Lift Irrigation Division, Balasore, was convicted Tuesday by the Special Judge, Vigilance, Balasore. He was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 50,000.
Pradhan had been charge-sheeted by the Vigilance under Sections 13(2) read with 13(1)(d)/7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for demanding and accepting a bribe of `10,000 from a contractor to process agreement papers related to a work order.
