Indore: Property worth Rs 20 cr unearthed in Lokayukta raid

Jabalpur Lokayukta team raided the residence of Syed Shoukat Ali, an executive engineer with rural engineering department, and unearthed unaccounted property worth more than Rs 20 crore.

In a pre-dawn raid on Monday, Jabalpur Lokayukta team raided the residence of Syed Shoukat Ali, an executive engineer with rural engineering department, and unearthed unaccounted property worth more than Rs 20 crore here.

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Simultaneous raids were also carried out at Ali’s residences in Balaghat, where he is posted, and Chhindwara. He only has a year of his service left.

During preliminary investigation, Lokayukta sleuths searched his Indore bungalow in Vijay Nagar at Scheme number 54 and seized papers of two plots, three four-wheelers and an equal number of two-wheelers, bank policies and lockers in two banks.

Of the four, three cars are imported and were parked in the backyard. Sleuths also recovered papers of an engineering college in Chhindwara which is in Ali’s name.

When contacted, Jabalpur Lokayukta superintendent Padma Villochan Shukla said they had received a complaint against the executive engineer of owning property disproportionate to his source of income. They sought a court warrant and raided Ali’s home at 6.30 am.

“In today’s raid, sleuths unearthed property worth more Rs20 crore comprising a bungalow built on plot sized 2,400 square feet, two plots that are 1,500 square feet in Mahalaxmi Nagar and Tulsi Nagar, three four-wheelers, Rs1.5 lakh in cash seized from Indore residence and Rs75,000 seized from his Chindwara residence, papers of an engineering college he own in Chindwara, two buses and gold and silver jewellery,” Shukla said.

“The officer was involved in economic offences during his posting at Barwani as well,” Lokayukta superintendent added. Evaluation of assets was underway when reports last came in.