Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance department has arrested 166 persons during the year 2023 on corruption charges, Vigilance sources said Sunday.
These include 26 Class-I officers, 32 Class-II officers, 85 Class-III employees. Among those arrested are 26 engineers of different departments, 26 Revenue Officers/ officials, 15 Police Officers, nine Forest Officers/ officials, six ICDS functionaries and three Doctors, the source added.
In 2023, Vigilance registered a total of 265 cases against 445 persons, including 58 Class-I officers, 44 Class-II officers, 193 Class-III employees, 57 other public servants and 85 private persons, the source informed.
The 265 cases included 85 Disproportionate Assets (DA) cases, 98 Trap cases and the rest other Corruption cases. During the last two consecutive years, Vigilance has detected and registered the highest number of DA cases in the country and this year too we are hopeful of a similar performance, the source added.
The detection of DA cases against Class-I Officers during last two years have remained the highest in the last five years. Out of 265 cases registered in 2023, 85 cases were instituted for acquisition of disproportionate assets against 89 public servants and 42 private persons. The total disproportionate assets in all the 85 cases crossed over Rs124 crores, the source informed.
The source informed that about 37 DA cases were registered against Class-I officers and 19 DA cases were registered against Class-II officers. A sum of Rs3,12,30,800 cash, the highest in the history of the state was seized during house searches against Prasanta Kumar Rout, Aditional. Sub-Collector, Nawarangpur, followed by Cash seizure of Rs1,64,00,000 during house searches against Umesh Chandra Jena, Additional Director, Directorate of Mines, Bhubaneswar and Rs3,41,66,280 from the possession of Kartikeswar Raul, AE, MI, Bhanjanagar.
As many as 36 Spouses were also brought in the ambit of investigations as co-accused in DA cases. As many as 98 trap cases were instituted during the year against 109 public servants and 14 private persons including 8 Class-I officers, 15 Class-II officers, 75 Class-III employees for demanding and accepting bribe, the source said.
During the year, 82 misappropriation cases relating to misappropriation of public money were registered against 191 persons, including 162 public servants and 29 private persons, involving misappropriation of public funds amounting to about Rs47.63 Crores. Misappropriation cases were registered against 12 Class-I officers, 10 Class-II officers, 90 Class-III employees, four Class-IV employees, 46 other public servants and 29 private persons, the source informed.
During the investigation, searches at over 478 locations were carried out by Vigilance against 198 corrupt public servants involved in Trap/ DA cases. Also, 684 number of Bank accounts of corrupt public servants were frozen by Vigilance, the source said.
During the last two years, high priority has been placed on the completion of investigation of cases along with detection. Last year the disposal rate was 122 percent which was the highest in a decade. In the year 2023, Vigilance has further improved achieving a disposal rate of 153 per cent in total, the source said.
In 2023, 406 cases were disposed of after investigation, out of which, chargesheets have been registered in 359 cases against 849 persons including 77 Class- I officers, 76 Class-II officers, 329 Class-III employees. The percentage of chargesheet comes to 88 per cent of the cases disposed of after investigation, the source added.
In 2023, 35 public servants —one Class-I Officer, five Class-II Officers, 28 Class-III employees and one other public servant were dismissed from Government service following their conviction in Vigilance cases. In 2022, with 30 dismissals, Odisha Vigilance was third in the country as per NCRB data.
During the year, a significant number of officers with corruption charges were given compulsory retirement by the Government in pursuance of the policy of zero tolerance to corruption, the source said.
UNI