‘25 plots, crores in bank’: Revenue employee lands in net of vigilance sleuths

As per the officials, the preliminary probe suggests that Manish and his wife bought the properties with ill-gotten money.

When the Vigilance Investigation Bureau (VIB) raided the house of Kumar Manish, a revenue employee-cum-circle inspector (in-charge), in Hajipur, Vaishali, they found that Manish, who earns a monthly salary of ₹40,000, owns 25 plots in Vaishali district, cold storage and crores in the bank, VIB officials said, adding that a disproportionate assets case worth ₹9.70 crore has been lodged against Manish.

New Indian Rupee 2000 Currency Note after Demonitization (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

As per the officials, the preliminary probe suggests that Manish and his wife bought the properties with ill-gotten money.

“When people are finding it difficult to buy even a single plot, this revenue employee managed to buy 25 plots and has a bank loan of ₹2.9 crore from PNB,” said a senior officer, adding that he earned money by misusing his official position.

Apart from the plots, Manish, who turned out to be a crorepati, has a multipurpose cold storage in his ancestral village located at Manibhakurhar under Saray police station area. He also runs a coaching institute as a franchisee of a noted brand.

VIB officials revealed that the revenue employee managed to get a bank loan worth ₹2.9 crore for the construction of cold storage.

After searching his premises, the VIB found that he was posted in Hajipur since 2016 and his per day income was said to be around ₹1 lakh. The Bureau also discovered more than nine bank passbooks in his name and his wife Munni Kumari. After the scrutiny of the passbooks, it was found that the couple was earning ₹5.44 crore since 1993 while their estimated expenditure was around ₹8.44 crore. Their estimated income said to be ₹4.19 crore including ₹2.9 crore loan.

Late on Wednesday evening, the VIB again searched his premises and found around 45 more deeds worth ₹30 crore in current market value. The VIB suspects the couple has hidden a huge amount of cash outside the state.

“We had received several complaints about him. Based on the information, our officials raided his house and found properties disproportionate to his known source of income,” said a VIB official, adding that investigation is on and more details will be available soon.