Sundargarh: A Vigilance case relating to the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 was registered Sunday against Sundargarh Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Biswajit Mohapatra and his wife for amassing assets disproportionate to legal sources of income.
Mohapatra has been arrested in the case and will be forwarded to the Court of Special Vigilance Judge in Bhubaneswar later in the day. During the searches that lasted for nearly a couple of days, assets worth around Rs 10 crore have been unraveled, an official claimed.
A source in the anti-corruption agency said that a case under Section 13(2), 13(1)(B)/12 of the Act has been registered against the duo.
It is pertinent to mention, the ADM Mohapatra had recently started cement trading in the name of his wife near his house in Balianta locality of the state capital. Technical Wing of the anti-graft agency Saturday verified total stock of the cement hoarded at his godown.
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Vigilance sleuths also questioned the ADM Mohapatra for long hours Saturday in connection with simultaneous searches initiated Friday as he accumulated assets unequal to his known sources of income.
Mohapatra was to retire from his service barely after 15 days. A Vigilance team Saturday took Mohapatra from Bhubaneswar earlier in the day to his government quarters and started searches. The house was kept sealed since Friday as he was away from headquarters.
It is known that the Vigilance team questioned the ADM Mohapatra regarding the sources of all assets which he has amassed illegally.
Separate teams of the Vigilance sleuths comprising eight DSPs, two Inspectors, five ASIs and several other subordinate staff had carried out the searches Friday at seven places associated with the ADM.
The simultaneous searches were initiated at seven places in Khurda, Sundargarh and Jagatsinghpur districts based on the strength of a search warrant issued by Special Vigilance Judge in Bhubaneswar.
“During the raids, Vigilance unearthed cash more than Rs 3 lakh, a two-storey building at Naharkanta worth about Rs 89 lakh and a flat at Asiana Plaza in Rasulgarh locality, both in Bhubaneswar, about Rs 2 crore detected in bank fixed deposits, savings accounts and insurance policies, including gold jewellery weighing around 350 gram, Rs 18 lakh deposited in the Mutual Fund and Rs 2 lakh deposited in NPS. In addition, ten plots located in Bhubaneswar city and Jagatsinghpur district have been detected,” a senior official in the team informed.
Search operations were conducted for the second day at the ADM’s residential house located at Rudrapur locality in Balianta and a flat located at Nayapalli, both in Bhubaneswar, a house in his ancestral village Redhua of Raghunathpur area and a relatives’ house at Jadatira in Manijanga of Jagatsinghpur, official residence located at Sundargarh town, office chamber at collectorate and residential house of a relative at OCL campus in Rajgangpur, the senior official added.
PNN
