Additional ₹1.4 crore seized from arrested Odisha govt engineer

A total of ₹3.42 cr cash seized from official

A day after assistant engineer Kartikeswar Raul was arrested for amassing 741% of his known source of income, vigilance sleuths on April 9 stumbled upon ₹1.41 crore of cash concealed by him at a slum here.

Earlier, the vigilance directorate had recovered ₹2 crore in cash from Mr. Raul, who is an assistant engineer in the minor irrigation division in the Ganjam district. The fresh seizure took the total cash confiscated from the corrupt engineer to ₹3.42 crore. It is the highest-ever cash seizure made by vigilance directorate.

Based on inputs, the vigilance department searched a house belonging to his kin at Salia Sahi – the biggest slum of Bhubaneswar.

During the search, the vigilance directorate said, cash of ₹1,41,62,400 and 354 gm of gold were recovered. Similarly, the anti-corruption agency traced another property – a triplex from at Pokhariput in Bhubaneswar that was purchased by cash payment of ₹78,50,000.

The Vigilance Department arrested Mr. Raul for possessing disproportionate assets worth ₹5,00,82,794, which he could not account for satisfactorily. This was 741% of his known source of income.

Vigilance teams led by five deputy superintendents of police and 11 inspectors had searched six places on April 6 and 7.

While cash of ₹2.03 crore was unearthed from an apartment, 20 gold biscuits weighing 580 grams were recovered. The current market of the gold is ₹29 lakh.