Vigilance Unearths Ollywood Links Of Tainted Odisha Housing Official

The Odisha Vigilance on Thursday unearthed Ollywood links of the tainted Deputy Manager in Odisha Police Housing and Welfare Corporation (OPHWC), Pratap Samal, who has been arrested on charges of amassing disproportionate assets.

According to reports, the vigilance sleuths have found out that Samal and his wife Sasmita had produced two Odia movies. Those include the 2003 Siddhanta Mohapatra starrer hit movie Nari Akhire Nia and multi starrer film Bazi in 2005.

Samal’s wife Sasmita was reportedly the producer in both the films while the former was the executive producer in one of those. Both the movies were produced under the banner of Radha Krushna Productions. However, police are yet to find out who is owns the banner.

Meanwhile, the Vigilance officials are further investigating the details about Samal's investments in the movies and other financing in the industry.

Notably, Samal was arrested on charges of amassing disproportionate assets which have so far been pegged at Rs 14.87 crore.

During raids at multiple locations belonging to Samal, the agency stumbled upon documents related to 25 plots belonging to him and his family members, including those in wife Sasmita’s name. The sleuths also unearthed deposits worth crores of rupees in several banks and Rs 38 lakh cash from Samal’s possession.

Significantly, Samal had thrown away Rs 20 lakh in cash stashed in a bag to his neighbour’s terrace when the Vigilance officials were waiting at his doorstep to carry out searches at his triple-storey house in IRC village, Bhubaneswar. However, the Vigilance recovered the bag and found additional Rs 18 lakh cash from his house during the searches.

Samal was posted as an assistant engineer in OPHWC and draws a salary of around Rs 80,000 per month.