BHUBANESWAR: 2020 was a dreadful year for most but the State Vigilance almost went on a treasure hunt as it detected a whopping Rs 123.91 crore worth of wealth illegally accumulated by 138 persons last year. Of them 93 were public servants.Needless to say, the highest value of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 9.35 crore was traced to IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak. It was also the biggest search operation conducted by the agency so far.
In 2020, the anti-corruption wing registered a total of 245 cases including 93 disproportionate assets (DA) cases. As per a report which was released on Friday, DA cases were registered against 93 public servants and 45 private persons and the value of all the assets accumulated illegally stands at Rs 123.91 crore.“In 36 DA cases, the value of assets accumulated illegally was more than Rs 1 crore each and in 4 cases the amount was more than Rs 4 crore each. About 24 DA cases were registered against class-I officers and 19 against class-II officers in 2020,” said the report.
The government had dismissed 15 public servants from service following their conviction in Vigilance cases, which includes one class-I, three class-II and 11 class-III officers.Similarly, the pension of 16 retired public servants was stopped after their conviction. “Around 17 cases have ended in conviction against one class-I, two class-II, thirteen class-III officers and one private person in 2020. The conviction of cases stands at 46 per cent,” the report revealed.
During the period, 187 persons were arrested for corruption including 34 class-I, 28 class-II, 106 class-III and 6 class-IV employees, five other public servants and eight private persons.In case of IFS officer Abhay, searches and verification were conducted by 150 officers and staff of the anti-corruption agency across four states for two consecutive days. The officer and his son Akash were arrested by the Vigilance on November 27 for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of income.The government on December 17 had recommended the Centre for compulsory retirement of suspended IFS officer Abhay following his arrest on graft charges.