Excise officer in Vigilance net

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance on Wednesday arrested the Superintendent of Excise of Dhenkanal, Krishna Nayak, on the charge of corruption, an official said. “Acting on an intelligence input, our team on Tuesday intercepted the official near Deulasahi road in Dhenkanal when she was travelling back home from office with ill-gotten cash of Rs 3 lakh,” said Radhakrishna, the Superintendent of Police (Vigilance), Cuttack cell division.

The Vigilance seized the cash and her vehicle, and began search operations at her properties at five locations, he said. During the raids, one triple-storey building at Jagatpur in Cuttack, a double-storey building in Puri, and eight high-value plots, including four in Cuttack, two in Puri, and two in Jagatsinghpur, were found, the SP said. Radhakrishna further said two four-wheelers and over Rs 20 lakh were found in Nayak’s possession during the search operation. “After detecting these properties from the Excise Superintendent, we have registered a corruption case and arrested her,” he said.

In a related development, Bijay Kumar Mallik, a former godown in-charge, Dehunda additional storage point of MARKFED-Odisha, Balasore, was convicted in a Vigilance case on Wednesday. The officer, now retired, was charge-sheeted by Odisha Vigilance under different sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and IPC for misappropriation of government funds related to pilferage of fertilisers at the storage point.

Special judge, Vigilance, Balasore sentenced him to 3 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000. The Vigilance said it would move the competent authority to stop his pension.

As per reports, the Odisha Vigilance department registered a total of 200 criminal cases against 308 corrupt officials and private persons in 2024. The sleuths have also arrested 181 people, including many government officials, during 2024. Similarly, in 2024, Odisha Vigilance has achieved a disposal rate of 154 per cent. In total, 307 cases were disposed of after investigation. As many as 105 cases have ended in convictions in 2024 at a conviction rateof 50 per cent.