BHUBANESWAR: Vigilance on Tuesday arrested the divisional forest officer (DFO) of Keonjhar Kendu Leaf (KL) division Nityananda Nayak for allegedly possessing disproportionate assets (DA) to the tune of 218 per cent of his known sources of income.
Besides, the earlier properties and assets, the Vigilance has also found a farmhouse spread over 1.50 acre land at Chhendipada in Angul. The farmhouse consists of an outhouse spread over 1,432 sqft, another house (314 sqft) and a pond excavated over 0.40 acre land at a cost of `30 lakh. The farmhouse also has two borewells, one well and hundreds of coconut, banana and mango trees.
Sources said Nayak tried to conceal the details of his farmhouse from Vigilance officers. However, during raids at his Keonjhar quarters, the anti-corruption agency recovered a diary consisting details of payments and expenditure for building the farmhouse.
A Vigilance team along with its technical members are now conducting evaluation and assessment of the farmhouse. Nayak also owns another farmhouse spread over 0.72 acre land having an under-construction building and a fish pond (0.72 acre) at Machhakuta in Chhendipada.
“After searches and interrogating Nayak for two days, he was found in possession of assets worth over `10 crore which is 218 per cent more than his known sources of income. He was not able to provide a satisfactory response on how he managed to accumulate such huge wealth,” said a Vigilance officer.
Balasore Vigilance registered a case against Nayak as well as his wife. He was produced in a court in Keonjhar later in the day, the officer added.