BHUBANESWAR: The Vigilance on Thursday arrested the executive engineer of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on charges of possessing disproportionate assets to the tune of 148 per cent of his known sources of income.
The accused Jagannath Pattnaik has also been booked under provisions of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, for illegal possession of a pair of antlers.
The anti-corruption agency unearthed over Rs 3 crore worth assets in Pattnaik’s and his family members’ name during raids carried out at four places on Wednesday. The assets include a three-storey building and two high-value plots in Bhubaneswar’s Badagada area, one plot in Khandagiri and two double-storey buildings in Gunupur.
The teams also detected Pattnaik’s farmhouse, spread over 1.57 acre land, at Ranapur Mouza in Balianta, while his bank/insurance deposits and investments in mutual funds were found to be over Rs 80.35 lakh.
The assets also included gold ornaments weighing 460 gm, cash and household articles worth around Rs 7 lakh and one car. Apart from these, he was also found possessing a pair of antlers and a countrymade gun.
Pattnaik began his career as a junior engineer with Gunupur NAC in November 1992. He joined the BMC as an assistant engineer in 2011, was promoted to assistant executive engineer in 2016, and became an executive engineer in 2024. He has around five years of service remaining, according to officials.