Bhubaneswar: A day after unearthing huge unaccounted properties, vigilance sleuths today arrested senior Odisha Administrative Officer (OAS) officer Prashant Rout, additional sub-collector of Nabarangpur, on charges of accumulating wealth disproportionate to his know sources of income.
During the raid, the anti-graft agency found a multi-storied building, four plots in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and a benami plot at Umerkote. He also possessed two luxurious cars and spent Rs 87 lakh on the education of his children.
The vigilance has seized gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 21.35 lakh. The raiding team also found Rs 62 lakh deposit in the bank and insurance.
According to Vigilance, Prasant had earlier been arrested on bribery charges when he was the BDO at Bisra Block in Sundargarh. He had also been suspended on November 6, 2018.
Later, he was posted as an additional sub-collector in Nabarangpur on January 18, 2020, after his suspension was revoked.
Yesterday, the vigilance recovered over Rs 3 crore in cash during raids at his residence in Bhubaneswar.
Sleuths of the department found the huge amount of cash in possession during multiple raids at his residences in Bhubaneswar, Nabarangpur and other places.
The accused officer’s wife allegedly threw six cash-stashed cartons to their neighbour’s terrace at Kanan Vihar here and requested them to hide the currency, when the personnel of the wing arrived there, the officials said.
The boxes were later recovered from the neighbour’s house, and multiple counting machines were used to count the cash, officials said.
Another Rs 89.5 lakh in cash along with gold ornaments was recovered from his Nabarangpur residence, the officials said.
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