Father-son duo land in Odisha Vigilance net over disproportionate asset charges

Berhampur: Jagabandhu Padhy, the father of RWS&S junior engineer Sunil Kumar Padhy, while serving as R Udaygiri range officer, was previously convicted in a disproportionate assets (DA) case by Odisha Vigilance. Interestingly, Vigilance sleuths today raided the houses of both the father-son duo.

The former forest ranger was convicted in GR case 18/89(V), TR No-20/1999 by the Special Vigilance Court in Berhampur for possessing illegal assets vide judgement dated 22.5.2009 U/s 13(2) r/w 13(1) (d) of the PC Act, 1988 and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh, a source of the anti-corruption agency said.

Earlier in the day, separate teams of Vigilance sleuths carried out simultaneous searches at five different places associated with the retired forest ranger over DA charge in Aska notified area council (NAC) limits of Ganjam district. The raids were conducted in the morning as the former forest official has allegedly amassed properties disproportionate to his legal sources of income.

The places where raids were conducted include a house in Sunam Sahi and another near the government bus stand under Aska civic limits and three others in Bhanjanagar, Berhampur and Bhubaneswar. A ten-member team of officials from Cuttack and Berhampur Vigilance were divided into two groups and carried out the house searches, the official stated.

Worth mentioning, the RWS&S engineer and retired ranger’s son fled from his residence during a raid in Bhubaneswar, and was later nabbed by the team. The JE was hiding at his neighbour’s house.