Odisha RWSS official lands in Vigilance trouble, crypto investments worth over Rs 1.75 cr detected

38 documents related to crypto investments have been recovered and are being examined by the Financial Wing of Odisha Vigilance and crypto experts.

Kasturi Swain Published On : Oct 28, 2022 at 2:20 PM Updated On : Oct 29, 2022 at 9:59 AM

Bhubaneswar: Amid simultaneous raids on the properties of Additional Chief Engineer ( Planning, Monitoring, Design and Investigation) of Bhubaneswar RWSS Circle Nihar Ranjan Das, Vigilance sleuths shared that the accused official tried to destroy evidence of crypto investments on seeing the arrival of the team at his place today. After recovery of the documents, investments in crypto currency (virtual digital assets) was assessed at over Rs 1.75 crore and the figure, as per crypto experts, is likely to rise.

As per reports, the Odisha Vigilance led by 5 DSPs,12 Inspectors, 1Sub Inspector, 11 ASIs and other staff, carried out the searches in Khurdha, Sambalpur and Bargarh districts on the strength of search warrants issued by Special Judge (Vigilance), Bhubaneswar after allegations of Das amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income emerged.

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The places raided during the day included residential house of Das at Flat No-201, Sriram Mansion,Kharavel Nagar (Bhubaneswar), one triple storey building (Parental) at Modipada (Sambalpur), 8 plots in prime area of Sambalpur town, one paternal house at Rohiniyan village (Bargarh) and his office chamber in Bhubaneswar.

During house searches so far, evidence of investments in suspected crypto currencies were unearthed. Official sources said Das tried to destroy the evidence of suspected crypto currency investments by throwing away a bundle of documents related to suspected crypto investments along with a mobile phone, from the window of the house immediately on seeing the vigilance team. The same were recovered by the alert Vigilance search team.

38 documents related to crypto investments have been recovered and are being examined by the Financial Wing of Odisha Vigilance and crypto experts.

After asset valuation, Vigilance Technical Wing said six plots in Sambalpur were worth Rs 1.27 crore, insurance deposit worth about Rs 64.42 lakh, two four wheelers (Honda WR-V car) worth Rs 39 lakh, 2 two wheelers (Royal Enfield) worth Rs 3 lakh, 332 gm gold jewelry worth over Rs 10 lakh, household articles worth Rs 15.55 lakh besides, Rs 1.7 lakh cash.