BHUBANESWAR: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday unearthed a whopping 17 kg gold worth over Rs 8.5 crore besides Rs 1.57 crore cash from the possession of retired Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer Pramod Kumar Jena.
Jena, who was earlier booked for accumulation of disproportionate assets, was also possessing bank and postal deposits of Rs 2.5 crore. He retired last year as the principal chief operation manager of East Coast Railway (ECoR) in November.
The Central agency carried out searches at various properties linked to Jena in Bhubaneswar and other places. "Property-related documents have been seized and further searches are continuing," said a CBI officer.
On January 3, the central agency's Anti-Corruption Branch registered a case against Jena, a 1989 batch IRTS officer under the Prevention of Corruption Act and carried out searches.
On January 4, the ACB found Jena to be possessing of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 1.92 crore. Searches were carried out at places in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur and about Rs 10 lakh cash was recovered from the property of Jena the same day.
The 60-year-old had amassed wealth while serving in ECoR in different positions like additional divisional railway manager, chief freight transportation manager, chief commercial manager, chief traffic planning manager, and principal chief commercial manager, CBI sources had said.
Jena joined the service in March 1989 and retired on November 30, 2022. Interestingly, he and his family members were found in possession of assets amounting to only Rs 4.53 lakh till April 2005. However, the wealth grew rapidly to the tune of Rs 4.28 crore by March 2020.
The CBI had pegged the total known sources of income of Jena and his family members between April 2005 and March 2020 at over Rs 3.25 crore. Their expenditure during the same period, including the educational fee of the two girls, was calculated at Rs 88.58 lakh.