The accused was identified as Hadibandhu Panigrahi, the regional officer of OSPCB for Kalinganagar, Jajpur.
Acting on reliable information that Panigrahi collected huge amount as illegal gratification and heading to his house in Khandagiri area in a private vehicle, the vigilance officers of Bhubaneswar Division intercepted him on Thursday evening.
During the search, a sum of Rs 96,500 and a gold coin weighing 10 gram were found from his possession which he failed to account for. Soon after, his residential house at Khandagiri, Bhubaneswar was searched.
During the search, documents relating to acquisition of immovable and movable assets such as one plot at Angul, one double storied building at Khandagiri, gold ornaments weighing 442 grams, silver 1 kg 168 grams, One Travera vehicle, one Maruti Ritz car, one Maruti 800 Car, one Honda Aviator Scooter, costly household articles, one Crusher Unit, investments in LIC, fixed deposits, bank deposits and other relevant documents relating to investment in shares/ bonds and Air-tickets relating to foreign visit were found from Panigrahi’s house.
In this connection, a criminal case has been registered against Panigrahi under Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, for possession of disproportionate amounting to Rs 1.36 crore (Approximately) which he could not account for. Panigrahi was produced in a court today and remanded to judicial custody till October 20. Further investigation is underway.
In a related development, Upendra Moharana, Amin of Balasore Regional Improvement Trust (BRIT), has been caught red-handed by the officers of Vigilance, Balasore Division for accepting bribe of Rs 7,000 from complainant Subhendu Shekhar Das of Balia in Sahadevkhunta police limits to ensure approval of the building plan of his son-in-law.
Prasanta Patnaik