BERHAMPUR: The State government on Friday suspended Mohana block development officer (BDO) Bansidhar Khosla for his involvement in selling seized cashew nut at throwaway prices through public auction.After a criminal case was registered against him at Mohana police station in Gajapati district, Khosla was placed under suspension. Earlier, a sub-inspector (SI) of Adaba police station was suspended in the case.
The BDO and six others landed in trouble after a case was filed against them for allegedly selling huge quantities of seized cashew nuts at low prices through faulty public auction. In August last year, Adaba police had seized a truck loaded with 17 tonne cashew nuts and 3.5 quintal ganja near Mandimera village. Two persons were arrested in this connection.
After the case came up for hearing before the Civil Judge, Mohana, the court directed to sell the seized cashew nuts through public auction. SI Alok Ranjan Jagdal, the investigating officer of the case, submitted a report in the court stating that the raw cashew nut stock was sold for Rs 14 lakh in presence of BDO Khosla, supply inspector Shankar Behera and in-charge IIC Tapan Kumar Pati.
However in November, the court doubted veracity of Jagdal’s claim and directed the police to re-investigate the case and submit a report. Following the court’s order, the Gajapati SP entrusted ASP Sitaram Satpathy to probe the case. During investigation, it was found that a total of 17 tonne cashew nut worth Rs 64 lakh was seized from the truck.
The officials concerned ignored the norms while conducting the public auction and sold the seized items at prices less than the market value in connivance with some traders and carried out the auction in an illegal manner, Satpathy’s report stated. Basing on the report, Jagdal was suspended for gross misconduct while a case was filed against BDO Khosla, IIC Pati, supply inspector Behera, cashew trader K Rabi Kumar and the driver of the truck B Mohan Rao.