‘Crorepati’ engineer in Vigilance net

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance on Tuesday arrested Surendra Behera, Superintending Engineer of Irrigation division, Angul, in a Disproportionate Assets case. The Vigilance sleuths had on Monday unearthed assets worth crores during simultaneous searches at locations linked to Surendra on the allegations of amassing properties beyond his known sources of income.

As per Vigilance sources, on the allegation of possession of assets disproportionate to the known sources of income, simultaneous house searches were conducted on the properties of Surendra at eight places in Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Sundargarh, Angul and Ganjam on Monday. The places where the house searches have been carried out include the paternal and in-laws’ houses in Purusottampur area of Ganjam district, government quarters and office room in Angul.

“As many as eight teams of Odisha Vigilance comprising three Deputy Superintendents of Police, 10 Inspectors, four Assistant Sub-Inspectors and other supporting staff conducted the search on Monday on the strength of search warrants issued by the Court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Sundargarh,” said a senior Vigilance officer.

During the searches, the Vigilance sleuths found Surendra and his family members are in possession of one triple-storeyed building located at Sundargarh town worth over Rs 1.11 crore, one double-storeyed building at Rourkela, two flats in Bhubaneswar, four high value plots including one each in Sundargarh and Rourkela and two in Purusottampur area of Ganjam district.

In another significant development, the Confiscation Court (Authorised Officer’s Court), Vigilance, Bhubaneswar, on Monday passed order for the confiscation of the immovable and movable assets belonging to Swarnalata Pradhan, widow of late Basanta Kumar Pradhan and the co-accused in Disproportionate Assets case registered in 1990. The disproportionate assets include one multi-storeyed building at Tulasipur in Cuttack, one building at Laxmisagar in Bhubaneswar, a farm house of area 5.02 acres located at Athagarh, Cuttack, Bank and Postal deposits.

As per reports, during raids at properties linked to Basanta Kumar, former Deputy Director, Social Forestry, Bhubaneswar, the Vigilance sleuths found him and his wife Swarnalata possessing assets beyond his legal sources of income. Basanta Kumar was convicted in the DA case by the court on January 27, 2012.

Meanwhile the special court on Monday ordered the confiscation of properties possessed by Swarnalata, the co-accused in the case.