Vigilance arrests Udala RWSS assistant executive engineer over DA charge

Bhubaneswar/Udala: Following three days of simultaneous searches conducted at different locations associated with assistant executive engineer (AEE) of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) Rabinarayan Panda, the AEE was arrested today by Odisha Vigilance in a disproportionate assets (DA) case.

AEE Panda presently works in Udala sub-division of Mayurbhanj district.

Assets to the tune of Rs 6 crore including a three-storey building, a flat and two shops in Bhubaneswar, 12 plots in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Kendrapara, bank and insurance deposits worth over Rs 1.2 crore, cash more than Rs 28.09 lakhs, transaction of approximately Rs 1 crore through credit cards, gold weighing around 2.3 Kg etc have been unearthed during the house searches.

The engineer Panda was arrested as he was found to have amassed assets disproportionate to his legal sources of income, which he could not account for satisfactorily. He was forwarded to the Special Vigilance Judge’s Court in Bhubaneswar later in the day.

In this connection, Vigilance Cell PS Case (No-8, dated 16.11.2022 has been registered against Panda, his spouse and son U/s 13(2) r/w 13(1)(b)/12 PC Act, 1988 as amended by PC (Amendment) Act, 2018.

During house searches, the following movable and immovable assets to the tune of Rs 6 Crore were unearthed in the name of Panda and his family members: including a three-storey building having plinth area of 4,865 sqft built over plot No-992 KC-01, Kharavel Complex at Aiginia locality of Khandagiri in Bhubaneswar; a 2 BHK Flat No-401 in the 4th floor D-Block, ‘Tower Blue Hill’ Apartment at Patrapada, Bhubaneswar; 12 numbers of plots including five plots in prime area of Bhubaneswar, two plots in Cuttack and five plots in Kendrapara; bank and insurance deposits worth over Rs 1.20 crore; gold approximately weighing around 2.3 Kg; cash of Rs 28.09 lakh (Rs 25 lakh recovered from living room of Soumit Panda (son of Rabinarayan Panda) and his wife Smt Sagarika Swain (in their presence) in the house of her father located at Nayapalli area in Bhubaneswar, where they were frequently residing; transaction of approximately Rs 1 crore done by Soumit through credit cards issued by different banks such as HDFC, ICICI, Axis and IndusInd Bank; 4 four-wheelers (TATA Hexa, TATA Yodha, Mahindra Thar and Maruti Suzuki Ritz) worth over Rs 45 lakh; 3 two-wheelers worth Rs 2.67 lakh and household articles worth Rs 24 lakh, a press release of the anti-corruption agency mentioned.

A detailed investigation of the DA case is still underway, the official communiqué read.