Bhubaneswar: A day after recovering over Rs 2 crore in cash from an officer of the watershed department, the Odisha vigilance department Thursday launched a separate inquiry into alleged misappropriation of funds by the officer and his associates.
Wednesday, vigilance officials raided the house of Santanu Mohapatra, the deputy director and project director of the watershed department in Malkangiri, for possessing disproportionate assets and recovered Rs 2.06 crore in cash.
Gold jewellery weighing 422 grams, bank, insurance, other deposits worth Rs 91 lakh, four high-value plots in Bhubaneswar and Jeypore town, a four-wheeler, two two-wheelers and household articles worth Rs 29 lakh during the search operation. Further, Rs 2 lakh cash, sale deeds and other land documents were recovered from the bank locker of Mohapatra, a vigilance official said.
“The officer and his colleagues are suspected of misappropriating government funds by falsely reporting completed work and making payments to labour accounts, which were then withdrawn and stolen,” a vigilance official said.
Several passbooks of labourers were also found during searches at the homes of Biswajit Mandal, a data entry operator, and Amiyakanta Sahu, a contractual employee.
It appears these functionaries were operating the labourers’ bank accounts to facilitate the withdrawal and misappropriation of government funds. A separate inquiry has been launched, and files related to works shown as completed in the last two years are being scrutinised, the official added.
During the investigation, the anti-corruption wing also found that one Alekh Chandra Pradhan, operating a Jan Seva Kendra at Jagannath Prasad in Ganjam district, was acting as a conduit of Mohapatra in bribe collection. Pradhan had transferred more than Rs 1 crore since 2019 till 2024 to Mohapatra, the official said.
PTI
