Odisha Vigilance arrests govt officer over charges of corruption

Bhubaneswar, May 17 The Odisha Vigilance Department has arrested a senior government official, who was found possessing assets worth crores disproportionate to his known sources of income, officials said.

The accused official was identified as Asit Kumar Patra, posted as Additional Block Development Officer (ABDO) at Dharmasala block of Jajpur district.

"On May 16, Patra was arrested by Odisha Vigilance and handed over to the Court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Cuttack, for possession of Disproportionate Assets (DA) to the tune of 205 per cent of his known sources of income, which he could not account for satisfactorily," said a senior official on Friday.

A case has been registered against Patra and his spouse under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.

The vigilance officials earlier on Thursday unearthed huge movable and immovable assets belonging to Patra and his family members during house searches at different locations linked to the accused ABDO.

The assets unearthed during searches include three multi-storeyed buildings and a shopping complex in Jajpur district, one 2-BHK flat in Cuttack city, five high valued plots, gold ornaments weighing 800 grams and bank and insurance deposits valued at Rs 70 lakh, etc.

In another case, the State Vigilance Department on Friday caught Niranjan Dhal, the NAC Executive Officer, Khandapada in Nayagarh district, red handed while taking bribe from a contractor at his official residence on Friday evening.

He was taking the bribe for the bills already passed towards works completed by the said contractor as well as to make necessary measurements related to another work completed and to facilitate release of bills in favour of him.

"Left with no option, the complainant reported the matter to Vigilance authorities alleging harassment by the accused Dhal. Following this, accused Dhal was nabbed today by a team of Odisha Vigilance, while taking a bribe of Rs 20,000 from the complainant. The entire bribe money has been recovered from the possession of accused Dhal and seized. Following the successful trap, simultaneous searches are going on at five locations linked to Dhal from the DA angle," said a senior Vigilance Department official.

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