BHUBANESWAR: Tssessment of assets owned by R&B assistant engineer Raja Kishore Jena has led the State Vigilance to unearth wealth running into crores of rupees by his colleague in the same office.
Ashok Kumar Panda, also an assistant engineer, came under the purview of investigation when the Vigilance, while raiding Jena’s property found that the duo had jointly purchased a 4-BHK flat on the 16th floor of Cosmopolis apartment in the names of their wives. Panda is reportedly also a close associate of Jena.
The Vigilance calculated the assets of Jena at 317 per cent of his known sources of income. However, what came up as a rather startling find was that his colleague, Panda, was a ‘partner in crime’.
The Vigilance team on Tuesday evening visited the flat owned by Jena and Panda but found that the door was locked from the outside. The officers attempted to contact Panda over phone but his device was switched off. Later in the night, when the officials went to seal the same flat, they found Panda had confined himself inside along with his wife and two children to evade the searches.
He eventually presented himself before the Vigilance following which raids were carried out at the flat owned by him and Jena. The officers found a bag hanging from a window outside the flat and recovered Rs 1 lakh cash and other documents. Silver ornaments of 117 gram, gold ornaments weighing 125 gram, original record of rights of a property, an iPhone and other articles were recovered later.
Vigilance officers further found that Panda and his family members also owned two shops in Utkal Kanika Galleria mall, one shop in Symphony mall, a four-storey building in Dumduma, a three-storey building in Dumduma Housing Board Colony, postal deposits in three accounts amounting to Rs 37.97 lakh. Besides, he has eight high-value plots including seven in Bhubaneswar. Searches at property linked to Panda are continuing and further action will be initiated accordingly, said a Vigilance officer.
The anti-corruption agency had on Tuesday carried out multiple raids at 10 properties linked to Jena in Bhubaneswar and Nayagarh basing on allegations that he had accumulated huge wealth through illegal means. The arrest was made as Jena could not provide any satisfactory response regarding how he amassed such huge wealth, a Vigilance officer said.