Sundargarh: Vigilance sleuths Saturday quizzed Sundargarh Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Biswajit Mohapatra on charges of accumulation of assets disproportionate to his legal sources of income.
Meanwhile, simultaneous searches and raids initiated Friday are underway for the second day today, a source informed.
According to sources, Mohapatra was to retire from his service barely after 16 days. However, he is now being interrogated by the Vigilance officials at his government quarters in Sundargarh.
A team of the anti-corruption agency took Mohapatra from Bhubaneswar earlier in the day to his government quarters and started searches. The house was kept sealed since Friday as the ADM was away from headquarters.
It is known that the Vigilance team will question ADM Mohapatra regarding the sources of all assets which he has amassed illegally.
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Separate teams of the Vigilance sleuths comprising eight DSPs, two Inspectors, five ASIs and several other subordinate staff had carried out the searches Friday at seven places associated with the ADM.
The simultaneous searches were initiated at seven places in Khurda, Sundargarh and Jagatsinghpur districts based on the strength of a search warrant issued by Special Vigilance Judge in Bhubaneswar.
“During the raids, Vigilance unearthed cash more than Rs 3 lakh, a two-storey building at Naharkanta worth about Rs 89 lakh and a flat at Asiana Plaza in Rasulgarh locality, both in Bhubaneswar, about Rs 2 crore detected in bank fixed deposits, savings accounts and insurance policies, including gold jewellery weighing around 350 gram, Rs 18 lakh deposited in the Mutual Fund and Rs 2 lakh deposited in NPS. In addition, ten plots located in Bhubaneswar city and Jagatsinghpur district have been detected,” a senior official in the team informed.
Search operations are still underway for the second day at the ADM’s residential house located at Rudrapur locality in Balianta and a flat located at Nayapalli, both in Bhubaneswar, a house in his ancestral village Redhua of Raghunathpur area and a relatives’ house at Jadatira in Manijanga of Jagatsinghpur, official residence located at Sundargarh town, office chamber at collectorate and residential house of a relative at OCL campus in Rajgangpur, the senior official added.
However, the valuation of disproportionate assets that the government official has amassed will be ascertained after the raids are over.
“Raids are likely to continue to detect all the movable and immovable assets of Mohapatra. Vigilance officials have been scrutinising several important documents seized during the raids,” the official stated.
It is pertinent to mention, the ADM Mohapatra had recently started cement trading in the name of his wife near his house in Balianta locality of the state capital. Technical Wing of the anti-graft agency has been verifying stock of the cement hoarded at his godown.
PNN