Vigilance arrests tainted RWSS engineer, seeks freezing of crypto account

The vigilance department on Saturday arrested Additional Chief Engineer of RWS&S Department of Odisha, Nihar Ranjan Das on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known source of income. 

The vigilance had earlier unearthed crypto assets worth Rs 1.75 crore from Das' possession during raids at multiple locations. 
Odisha Vigilance Director Yeshwant Jethwa also wrote to a Crypto Agency urging it to freeze the accounts of Das. Jethwa revealed this to media following his interrogation. 

The Vigilance department has written to the Crypto agency via e-mail after it conducted simultaneously raids at six locations associated with Das.

Addressing media Jethwa said, “We have recovered documents which Das wanted to destroy during search. Our financial team and Crypto experts are analyzing the documents. Crypto Exchange has been approached to give details of KYC, incoming and outgoing calls, details of financial procurement and crypto sales etc."

"We have unearthed documents relating to investments made in Crypto currency by Nihar worth Rs 1.75 crore on Friday. We are hopeful of getting more crypto link related to Das. Steps are being taken to freeze all the accounts of Das”, maintained Jethwa.

Notably, five Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), 12 Inspectors, one Sub-Inspector, 11 ASIs and other staff including the constables carried out the raids in Khordha, Sambalpur and Bargarh.

Residential house of Das at Kharavel Nagar in Bhubaneswar, one triple-storied building  of Das located at Modipada in Sambalpur, paternal house of Das located at Rohiniyan village in Bargarh, the office Chamber of Das at PMDI Circle in Bhubaneswar, his relatives’ residences at Kharavel Nagar in Bhubaneswar and at Sanapalla in Khordha were raided on Friday.