A government engineer in Odisha, who joined the service nearly 25 years ago, earning roughly Rs 6,000 a month, is now facing a serious disproportionate assets investigation. This has happened after the state vigilance officials allegedly detected close to Rs 2 crore from two bank lockers reportedly linked to his family, besides five buildings and 13 land plots across Odisha. Gold ornaments were also seized.
The findings came to light during coordinated raids across nine locations connected to the accused, Baikuntha Nath Behera, an assistant executive engineer currently serving under the Integrated Tribal Development Agency in Baliguda in Kandhamal district of Odisha.
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Sleuths are now working to establish how the accused officer, who now reportedly draws a salary of Rs 80,000, could have accumulated wealth that they believe far exceeds what his legitimate income could explain.
Search ops across Odisha
The operation, which included searches across places such as Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Jajpur and Baliguda, is still underway. Additional superintendents of police, deputy superintendents of police, and inspectors were part of the investigating team.
Acting on disproportionate asset allegations compared to Behera’s known sources of income, vigilance teams conducted coordinated raids across multiple locations linked to him and his family on Friday (June 5), armed with warrants issued by the Special Vigilance Court in Bhubaneswar.
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What investigators allegedly discovered inside two bank lockers in Bhubaneswar elevated the case into one of the state’s most significant vigilance probes in recent memory. The lockers, registered in Behera’s wife’s name at Axis Bank and Union Bank branches in Chandrasekharpur in the state capital, reportedly contained cash worth nearly Rs 2 crore, which officials were still counting with machines.
Five multi-storey buildings, cash, gold ornaments found
During the investigation, officials found five multi-storey buildings allegedly linked to the engineer and his family, including a four-storey structure spread over more than 10,000 square feet in Niladri Vihar, Bhubaneswar. Properties were also discovered in Jajpur. Additionally, 13 land parcels were traced across prime Bhubaneswar locations, Jajpur, and Baripada.
The officials also recovered cash worth more than Rs 2.66 lakh from different premises of the accused, besides seizing gold ornaments whose value was yet to be determined.
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Sisant Kumar Biswal, the vigilance SP, said the final value of the assets was yet to be determined.
“Following the searches, we have detected five houses, 13 plots of land, gold ornaments, cash, and approximately Rs 2 crore deposited in bank lockers. The raids are still underway. The valuation of the buildings is currently being carried out, and reports from various banks are yet to be received,” he was quoted as saying by an India Today report.
Behera joined government service in 1999 as a junior engineer earning Rs 6,000 monthly and served across tribal development and engineering roles before his recent promotion to assistant executive engineer earlier this year.
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