Vigilance arrests Odisha ITDA project administrator on DA charges

Vigilance sleuths on Friday arrested Bishwadarshi Sahoo, the Project Administrator of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), posted at Bonai in Sundargarh district after he was found in possession of assets disproportionate to his known source of income.

The anti-corruption agency carried out extensive and coordinated raids at seven locations in Sundargarh, including the residence of Sahoo on Thursday and unearthed a multi-storeyed building, two flats (Rs.1.50 crore advanced to purchase one flat) in Bhubaneswar and nine high-value plots.

Besides, Vigilance also found 150 grams of gold, Rs 4.51 lakh cash, deposits over Rs 61 lakhs etc during the raid which he could not explain satisfactorily.

Following this, Sahoo was placed under arrest by the Odisha Vigilance and forwarded to court for possession of disproportionate assets.

In this connection, Rourkela Vigilance PS case No.2/2025 has been registered against Sahoo.

Also Read: Vigilance raids ITDA Project Administrator's properties across Odisha

It is worthwhile to mention here that, the Odisha Vigilance Department had registered over 200 criminal cases and apprehended 181 individuals, including government officers and officials for their involvement in various corruption and disproportionate asset (DA) cases in 2024.

Cases were registered against 50 Class-I officers, including six Chief Engineers, a Joint Commissioner of Excise, a Deputy Director of Fisheries, two Assistant Commissioners of CT & GST, a Jail Superintendent, a Sub-Collector, two Tehsildars, two BDOs, and several others last year.

Similarly, 19 engineers, 22 revenue officials, 20 PR&DW officials, nine police officers, five doctors, three forest officials and three ICDS functionaries have been arrested by the Vigilance on various corruption charges in 2024.