ROURKELA/ANGUL: Odisha Vigilance on Monday cracked down on deputy director of mines, Dharanidhar Nayak and uncovered assets running into crores of rupees disproportionate to his known source of income.
Nayak, who joined the service in 2014, is currently posted at Angul. During the raid, the anti-corruption agency found he possessed a 3-BHK flat in Bhubaneswar valued at around Rs 1.30 crore.
He also has a duplex at Sundarpada area of the state capital besides a double-storey market complex consisting of 15 shops at Badinali in Telkoi under Keonjhar. Another such commercial complex comprising four shops and two more such buildings in the district were also located.
Nayak also possessed 11 plots, including three in prime areas of Bhubaneswar, the Vigilance sources said.
About Rs 9.85 lakh in cash, bank and insurance deposits of Rs 53.53 lakh and household articles worth Rs 54.70 lakh have been detected by the anti-corruption wing which also found that Nayak had taken a loan of Rs 75 lakh in 2022 which he repaid in 2 years. The Vigilance suspects the repayment was from his ill-gotten money which is now under verification.
The Vigilance raided eight locations linked to Nayak in Angul, Keonjhar and Khurda districts during the operation on the day.
Nayak joined government service in 2014 and was posted as mining officer at Koraput. After about seven years, he was transferred to Talcher as mining officer in 2021. He was promoted to the rank of deputy director in 2022 and continued there.
In the day’s second operation by the Vigilance, child development project officer (CDPO) of Kutra block Jayashree Pattnaik, was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000 from an anganwadi worker.
Jayashree was nabbed by vigilance officers while accepting the bribe which was part of a Rs 5,000 demand made for a favourable report following a surprise inspection of the anganwadi centre recently.
A case was filed on Sunday under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. A trap was laid basing on the complaint of the anganwadi worker, and Jayashree was caught red-handed. Simultaneously, raids were conducted at two of her locations to investigate illegal assets. Investigation is on.