Bhubaneswar, Feb 5 (IANS): The Odisha Vigilance on Wednesday unearthed huge assets worth several crores including cash to the tune of around Rs 2 crore during simultaneous searches at properties linked to a senior official of the state Agriculture Department.

The accused government official, Santanu Mohapatra is working as Deputy Director & Project Director, Watershed, in Malkangiri district.

“On the allegation of possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, the Vigilance Department on Wednesday launched simultaneous house searches on the properties of Mohapatra at seven places including Malkangiri, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar,” said a senior Vigilance Department official.

The places where the searches were carried out included Mohapatra’s parental house in Cuttack, the houses of the Assistant Agriculture Engineer, one Data Entry Operator and a contractual staff posted at the office of Project Director Watershed in Malkangiri, etc.

Sources informed that seven teams of Odisha Vigilance comprising two Additional SPs, four Deputy SPs, 10 Inspectors, six ASIs, and other supporting staff conducted the search on the strength of search warrants issued by the Court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Jeypore on Wednesday.

The cops following the house searches found Mohapatra and his family is in possession of one triple-storeyed residential building at Jeypore in Koraput, four highly valued land plots at prime locations in Bhubaneswar and Jeypore town, gold jewellery weighing 422.44 gms, bank and insurance deposits worth Rs.91,10,306, one 4-wheeler, two 2-wheelers and household articles worth over Rs 29.08 lakhs.

The sleuths also recovered cash Rs 2,06,92,850 during the house searches which is amongst the top cash seizures in the history of state vigilance.

The anti-corruption sleuths unearthed Rs.1.98 crore from the house of Mohapatra, Rs 6,92,110 from the house of Data Entry Operator, Biswajit Mandal, Rs 1,19,140 from the resident of Assistant Agriculture Engineer Mohan Mandal and Rs 81,600 from the house of Amiyakanta Sahu, contractual staff.

The Vigilance Technical Wing is carrying out the measurement and valuation of the building and plots owned by Mohapatra and his family. The officials are examining Mohapatra and his associates to ascertain the sources of assets unearthed during house searches.