As Odisha’s Vigilance Directorate, the anti-corruption unit, intensified its actions against high-ranking officials in recent times, a striking trend has emerged — a stunning technique of amassing illicit wealth through an insatiable desire for land.
The Vigilance Department has found a senior engineer accumulating 85 pieces of land in the name of him and his family members during a raid conducted on August 2.
As per information provided by anti-corruption unit, Pravas Kumar Pradhan, Chief Construction Engineer of Anandpur Barrage Division, possesses 80 plots in Jaleswar (Balasore district), four plots in Delanga (Puri), and one plot in Sunakania (West Bengal).
The immovable properties owned by Mr. Pradhan include one five-storeyed building with area approximately 12,500 sqft located at Jaleswar and one newly constructed concrete roofed building with boundary wall and market complex spread over approximately 5,650 sqft area at same place.
“The plots were purchased by Mr. Pradhan in different years in his name as well as in name of his family members. The total registered sale deed value comes to more than ₹2 crores. However, the actual value will be much higher, which is being verified,” the Directorate said in a statement. The vigilance technical team is carrying out the measurement and valuation and assessment of the buildings, and plots.
Earlier this week, Rama Chandra Mishra, joint commissioner of excise, was arrested on charges of amassing assets disproportionate to known source of income. When vigilance sleuths conducted searches in his establishments, they were astounded by the extent of his real estate holdings. He and his family members possessed 52 plots apart from six multi-storeyed buildings and two apartments. These land pieces were detected Sambalpur (two ), Balangir (three) and 47 in Subarnapur.
Similarly, Sunil Kumar Rout, chief construction engineer of Lower Suktel Project, Balangir, was found to have amassed disproportionate assets in excess of 257% of his known source of income. Mr. Rout has very high valued two multi-storyed buildings in Bhubaneswar, three flats in Puri and Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and 34 pieces of land including one farm house spread over eight acres of land.
When contacted, Y. K. Jethwa, Vigilance Director, said, “the number of plots purchased by officials has come as a surprise to us. We do not take family-inherited land into account; only the number of plots purchased during their service period is considered.”
“Corrupt officials have found that purchasing land is the easiest way to convert black money into white. They typically report low registered sale deed value as the purchase amount. However, during assessments, we take into account the benchmark value, which is closer to the prevailing market price of the land,” Mr. Jethwa said, emphasizing that corrupt individuals cannot evade scrutiny using this tactic.
Detecting land purchases made by officials is a challenging task. Vigilance Department officials diligently gather information from various sources about land bought by specific officials over two to three months before conducting raid. This information is then cross-checked with government land records. Odisha vigilance has conducted raids on close to 10 class I officers of State government during past one month.
