Junior engineer held for amassing huge wealth
The suspected ill-gotten cash and gold were allegedly hidden by the official’s wife in a tenant’s house
Bhubaneswar: Odisha anti-corruption Vigilance officials on Saturday arrested a Junior Engineer after seizing Rs 55 lakh in cash and 1.4 kg gold from his possession, an official said. The arrested official, identified as Susanta Kumar Sethy, was working under the Roads and Buildings Division at Khariar in Nuapada district. “Sethy was arrested on charges of possessing disproportionate assets (DA) amounting to more than 340 per cent of his known source of income,” said Vigilance SP M Radhakrishna.
According to officials, the suspected ill-gotten cash and gold were allegedly hidden by Sethy’s wife in a tenant’s house on their property. “This is under verification,” the Vigilance SP added.
During the raid, Vigilance officers uncovered a vast amount of unaccounted assets in Sethy’s name. These included three multi-storey buildings, a farmhouse, nine high-value plots, two expensive four-wheelers (including a benami vehicle), bank deposits totaling Rs 55 lakh, and household articles valued at over Rs 14 lakh.
“Sethy had kept a large amount of ill-gotten money—Rs 55 lakh in cash and 1.4 kg of gold — at his tenant’s residence to evade detection during the Vigilance raids. The amount was later allegedly usurped by the tenant,” a Vigilance official said.
In connection with this, Sethy’s wife lodged an FIR at Dhouli police station in Bhubaneswar on April 13, 2024, alleging that the tenant had failed to return the money and gold. The case is currently under investigation.
The Vigilance officials conducted simultaneous house searches on the properties of Sethy on Thursday at different places in Bhubaneswar, Pipili (Puri) and Nuapada. The places where the raids were conducted include his government quarters at Nuapada, farm house located in Pipili area of Puri district, house of a relative and houses of his associates in Bhubaneswar.
“As many as eight teams of Odisha Vigilance comprising seven Deputy Superintendents of Police, three Inspectors, 10 ASIs, and other supporting staff conducted the search on the strength of search warrants issued by the Court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar,” said a senior official.
The Vigilance sources revealed that the Registered Sale Deed (RSD) value of the landed plots is valued at Rs.1.01 Crore. However, the actual value is likely to be much higher. The anti-corruption wing of Odisha government suspects undervaluation of the plots during registration. The measurement and valuation of the buildings, farmhouse and landed plots are being carried out by the Vigilance Technical Wing to ascertain the actual value of the above properties of Sethy.
