ROURKELA: Police on Friday arrested Lathikata tehsildar on charges of amassing disproportionate assets worth around Rs 2.60 crore, a day after he was caught carrying Rs 5 lakh cash in his car.
The accused, Muralidhar Urmal, who was also the sub-registrar, was sent to judicial custody for 14 days till September 3. He was subsequently lodged in the Sundargarh district jail.
Simultaneous raids were conducted at his office, his residential building at Karamdihi in Sundargarh and his official residence at New LIC Colony in Civil Township, Rourkela.
Rourkela Vigilance SP H Majhi said Urmal confessed to having illegally collected Rs 5 lakh from different people before he was apprehended. The Vigilance team also seized 345 grams of gold ornaments from a bank locker. During the house searches, an additional Rs 5.74 lakh in cash was recovered, taking the total cash seizure to Rs 10.74 lakh.
Majhi said that Urmal’s double-storey building at Karamdihi, spread over around 3,700 sq ft, was valued at about Rs 73 lakh. Six high-value plots on the outskirts of Sundargarh town and Rourkela were valued at around Rs 23 lakh as per their sale deeds.
Bank, postal and insurance deposits worth Rs 75 lakh, household articles valued at Rs 13 lakh, 635 grams of silver ornaments, one four-wheeler and three two-wheelers were also detected during the searches. The total value of assets possessed by Urmal was estimated at around Rs 2.60 crore, following which he was forwarded to the court.
On Thursday, Vigilance sleuths had intercepted Urmal and seized Rs 5 lakh in unaccounted cash from the vehicle.