Vigilance sleuths on Monday conducted simultaneous raids at four places including the house of chief engineer-cum-chief electrical officer of Sambalpur, Sunil Kumar Panda on charges of amassing property assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
According to reports, simultaneous house searches are being conducted by teams of the anti-corruption agency led by two DSPs with support of nine inspectors, two assistant sub inspectors and other staff on the strength of search warrants issued Special Judge Vigilance, Sambalpur.
Vigilance searches are underway at Panda’s residential building, parental house located at Green Park Residency, Sambalpur, flat at the Cosmopolis Project at Khandagiri in Bhubaneswar and his office in Sambalpur.
While exact details on the raids will be know later, the Vigilance teams are said to have already laid their hands on many crucial documents related to the property of the officer.
Earlier on Sunday, Biswajit Mohapatra, Additional District Magistrate, Sundargarh was arrested by the Vigilance on charges of owning huge proportion of assets earned through illegal means.
Odisha government had also handed down compulsory retirement to five more officials including an assistant engineer, CDPO, Anganwadi supervisor, police inspector and revenue supervisor on grounds of corruption and incompetence earlier this month.
From 2021 and up until now, as many as 146 government officials have either been dismissed or sent on mandatory retirement over charges of corruption, securing illegal wealth and inefficiency.