Engineer's houses raided

The Pioneer, 6th June, 2008

On the allegation of accumulation and possession of disproportionate assets by Nirod Kumar Sethy, Executive Engineer, Ret Irrigation Division, Bhawanipatna, his Government quarter and office chamber at Bhawanipatna, three-storied residential building at Old Town in Bhubaneswar, another quarter no. D/9 at Sector-3, Rourkela, houses of his relatives and residential house of Pabitra Swain, a contractor, at Bhawanipatna were simultaneously searched on Wednesday by Vigilance officers on the strength of a search warrants issued by CJM, Jeypore.
During the search, on perusal of different documents, the following movable and immovable assets were found in possession of Sethy in his name and in the name of his family members. Movable assets such as household articles, gold and silver ornaments, a Maruti car being used by Sethy registered in the name of contractor Swain worth Rs 8.25 lakh, deposits in different banks, post offices and towards LIC policy premium to the tune of Rs 7.62 lakh and hard cash of Rs 2.76 lakh were found.
Immovable assets like a three-storied building at Old Town, Bhubaneswar, and two plots of land at Old Town, Bhubaneswar, and Kuanrmunda, Sundargarh worth Rs 24.74 lakh were also detected. The total value of the movable and immovable assets found in possession of Sethy during the search was computed at Rs 43.37 lakh. Inquiry was in progress.
In a trap case, Vigilance officials caught red-handed Mahatab Pradhan, ASI of Police, Salebhata Police outpost under Loisinga police station in Balangir district, on Wednesday while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 3,700 from Kasinath Behera of village Bhakti as per his previous demand in his official residence in the outpost premises to show favour to Behera who is an accused in a case under the Excise Act.
Pradhan was arrested and forwarded to court.