Arrested Athagarh DFO placed under suspension

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Wednesday suspended Athagarh Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sudhanshu Mishra, who has been arrested on charges of accumulating properties disproportionate to his known sources of income.

This was informed by Principal Secretary of Forest and Environment department Suresh Mohapatra.

On February 24, Vigilance sleuths conducted simultaneous raids at the residence of Mishra at Athagarh and 10 other places and seized movable and immovable properties worth more than Rs 6 crore, including Rs 1.1 crore in cash.

Following the raid, Vigilance had prayed before the court to take Mishra on a five-day remand for further interrogation. But the court allowed only a three-day remand to the state probe agency.

On February 29, Mishra was taken on a three-day remand. But he reportedly did not cooperate during the interrogation.