CUTTACK: Odisha Vigilance has registered 516 criminal cases and arrested 537 government officers and others between June 12, 2024 and October 26, 2026, the department stated in its performance report released on Tuesday.
The anti-corruption agency has secured a conviction rate of around 65 per cent in corruption cases and 80 pc in disproportionate assets (DA) cases during the 28-month period. The convictions also led to dismissal of 42 government employees from service and stoppage of pension benefits to 91 retired public servants, the Vigilance stated in its report.
The drive targeted cases of disproportionate assets, bribery and misappropriation of public funds. Cases were registered against 134 Class-I officers, including one OAS officer, eight chief engineers, two divisional forest officers (DFOs), one sub-collector, four block development officers (BDOs), nine tehsildars, among other senior officials like joint commissioners, deputy director of Fisheries, deputy director of Mines, project directors and Excise superintendents.
Those arrested included 87 engineers, 64 Revenue officials, 45 Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water officials, 11 doctors, 22 Forest officials, 34 police officers and functionaries from other departments. Around 140 disproportionate assets cases have been registered involving assets worth nearly Rs 332 crore.
Searches unearthed 353 buildings, 39.781 kg gold, 1,471 plots, 25 farmhouses, bank deposits of Rs 72.43 crore and cash seizures of Rs 19.05 crore.
Among the largest DA cases, highest cash of Rs 12.72 crore was recovered from Baikuntha Nath Behera, assistant executive engineer (AEE), ITDA Baliguda, Rs 4.28 crore from Debabrata Mohanty, deputy director of Mines, Cuttack Circle, Rs 4.80 crore from Umakant Samantaray, assistant director, Factories & Boilers, besides cash and assets in the range of Rs 3.95 crore and Rs 4.73 crore have been recovered from several executive engineers. Similarly, 232 trap cases have been registered against 274 people during this period, including 31 Class-I officers and 38 Class-II officers for acceptance of bribe amounting to Rs 58.39 lakh.
Notable traps included the nabbing of Debabrata Mohanty, deputy director of Mines, Cuttack while he was accepting Rs 30,000 cash from the complainant. Subsequent searches led to recovery of Rs 4.28 crore cash from his possession. Similarly, Satyajit Rout, deputy director of Mines, Koraput was caught red-handed while accepting Rs 2 lakh bribe, while several others were nabbed while taking bribes in the range of Rs 15,000 to Rs 2 lakh.
Nine persons, including five Class-I officers, were intercepted carrying unaccounted cash totalling Rs 28.69 lakh. Vigilance has also registered 144 cases against 371 people involving alleged misappropriation of Rs 76.96 crore.