Odisha cops seize ₹2 cr from engineer’s house in second such incident in 10 days

On March 28, the vigilance officials had seized ₹1.39 crore cash from the house of Ashis Kumar Dash, a superintending engineer of the rural development department in Malkangiri district. Besides ₹1.39 crore in cash, the sleuths also found 1.2 kilograms of gold ornaments, including gold biscuits and coins and bank and insurance deposits of over ₹4 crore.

Published on: Apr 7, 2022, 21:42:41 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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Ten days after Odisha vigilance sleuths seized a record ₹1.39 crore in cash from the houses of an engineer in the state’s rural development department, the cops on Thursday confiscated another ₹2 crore in cash from the residence of another engineer working in the minor irrigation department in Ganjam district.

The Odisha Vigilance team deployed a counting machine to count the record amount of cash recovered from the engineer’s house in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. (HT PHOTO.)

Director of vigilance, YK Jethwa said his officials seized ₹2 crore in cash, the highest ever seizure in Odisha, from the apartment of an assistant engineer working with the Minor Irrigation Department during a raid at his residence on Thursday.

Jethwa said following a search at the flat of assistant engineer Kartikeswar Roul and his second wife Kalpana Pradhan at an apartment block in Bhubaneswar, the sleuths recovered ₹2 crore from his possession.

The Odisha Vigilance deployed a counting machine to count the record amount of cash recovered. Also, 580 grams of gold including 20 gold biscuits were recovered during the raid at the engineer’s house.

On March 28, the vigilance officials had seized ₹1.39 crore cash from the house of Ashis Kumar Dash, a superintending engineer of the rural development department in Malkangiri district. Besides ₹1.39 crore in cash, the sleuths also found 1.2 kilograms of gold ornaments, including gold biscuits and coins and bank and insurance deposits of over ₹4 crore.

Dash was found to have deposited around ₹64 lakh on 16 occasions in an account in the name of his deceased mother-in-law between July 11, 2020 and March 25, 2022 in Axis Bank, Malkangiri branch. He was also operating one more account in SBI, Keonjhar in the name of his deceased mother-in-law. The engineer’s mother-in-law had died in October 2010.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More

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