Odisha: Two engineers arrested over DA charges

Bhubaneswar, July 30 (IANS) Odisha Vigilance on Wednesday arrested Raja Kishore Jena, Assistant Engineer (AE) of R&B Division-III, Bhubaneswar, for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income by 317 per cent.

At least 10 teams of Odisha Vigilance, comprising seven Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), five Inspectors, one Sub-Inspector (SI), 11 Assistant SIs, and other supporting staff, on Tuesday conducted house searches at different locations linked to Jena on the strength of search warrants issued by the Vigilance Court of SpecialJudge in Bhubaneswar.

The anti-corruption officials have unearthed properties worth several crores possessed by Jena and his family members. The Vigilance officials found Jena in possession of a multi-storeyed building at Niladri Vihar and two flats in Bhubaneswar worth several crores of rupees.

He also reportedly owned two commercial outlets at Utkal Kanika Galleria Mall and Symphony Mall in Bhubaneswar, 13 high-value plots, including nine in Bhubaneswar, three in Nayagarh and one in Khordha districts.

Jena has allegedly invested Rs 75 lakh in Bank, postal and insurance deposits and spent Rs 67 lakh on the education of his two children.

The Vigilance officials also unearthed cash and household articles worth more than Rs 30 lakh.

In an interesting turn of events, police during raids on Tuesday revealed that Jena and his colleague, Ashok Kumar Panda, another Assistant Engineer posted in the same division, had jointly purchased a flat in Khandagiri, Bhubaneswar, in the names of their wives.

Subsequently, a vigilance team on Tuesday reached the residence of Panda to carry out a house search. However, Panda, upon seeing the sleuths, hid himself along with his family members inside the flat by locking it from the outside. When the vigilance sleuths began the process to seal the flat, Panda appeared before them.

On Wednesday, in daylight, a bag was found hanging under the window of Panda’s, which he admitted to having thrown out to evade detection. The cops recovered Rs 1 lakh cash, a silver coin weighing about 10gm, gold ornaments weighing about 60 gm, land documents, a costly phone, etc.

As many as six Odisha Vigilance teams carried out raids at different locations related to Panda in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. The cops have so far found Panda in possession of two buildings, one 4-BHK flat, three commercial outlets in Bhubaneswar, eight high-value plots, including seven in the capital city, gold and silver ornaments, deposits in bank and insurance worth 38 lakhs, etc.

--IANS

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