Malkangiri: Odisha Vigilance sleuths have arrested Deputy Director & Project Director, Watershed, Malkangiri, Santanu Mahapatra along with four other persons in a disproportionate assets case after carrying out a series of raids recently and seizing a whopping Rs 2 crore cash from his residence. He will be produced in court today.

Along with Mohapatra, Vigilance officials have arrested his accomplices Mohan Mandal, Asst Agriculture Engineer,  Biswajit Mandal, DEO, Amiyakanta Sahu (Contractual Staff) and one Alekh Pradhan for alleged embezzlement of government funds.

Mohapatra was in possession of disproportionate assets (DA) including one multi-storey building, four high-value plots, gold approx 422 gms, deposits over Rs.91 lakh, cash of Rs. 2 crore, etc, which he could not explain satisfactorily.

Koraput Vigilance have registered a case against Mohapatra, his spouse and his accomplices. Investigation is in process. 

On Thursday, the anti-corruption bureau in a release said he is suspected to have misappropriated government funds and was brought to Bhubaneswar for the inventory of his locker at SBI Bank, Kapilaprasad Branch.

As per the release, Mohapatra and his colleagues are suspected to have siphoned off government funds showing work done and making payments to labor accounts, which were then withdrawn and misappropriated. Large number of passbooks of laborers were reportedly recovered during searches at the residence of Biswajit Mandal, DEO and Amiyakanta Sahu, a contractual employee of the office. 

From preliminary investigation, it appears that the labourers' bank accounts were being operated by these functionaries to smoothly carry out withdrawal and misappropriation of government funds. A separate enquiry has been launched in this regard, and files connected to works shown completed in the last 2 years have been brought for scrutiny.

Enquiry has also revealed that one Alekh Chandra Pradhan operating a Jan Seva Kendra at Jagannath Prasad, Ganjam was acting as a conduit of Mohapatra in bribe collection. He was allegedly collecting bribes online from contractors and others on behalf of Mohapatra, and transferring the same to him later. During searches, evidence of transfers done by Pradhan to the tune of more than Rs 1 Crore since 2019 till 2024 have been gathered, Vigilance officials said in a release.

Following this, the location of Pradhan was searched, and he is being interrogated further.

On Wednesday, a team led by 2 Additional SPs, 4 DSPs, 10 Inspectors, 6 ASIs, and other supporting staff of Odisha Vigilance carried out simultaneous raids at seven places in Malkangiri, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar on the strength of search warrants issued by Special Judge, Vigilance, Jeypore.