Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance has detected a large number of benami investments made by arrested Superintending Engineer of Rural Works Division, Malkangiri Ashish Kumar Dash.
Dash who has been arrested by the Vigilance in a disproportionate assets case spilt the beans during interrogation while he was taken on a four-day remand by the anti-graft agency.
Dash has confessed to having opened benami accounts in the name of his relatives, servants, caretakers of his farmland and others and deposited a large amount of ill-gotten bribe money as cash deposits.
What sounds more interesting is Dash has further confessed to having been operating two Bank accounts in the name of his deceased mother-in-law who had expired long back in 2010 on October 31.
According to an official press note issued by the Vigilance, it has collected evidence of Dash having deposited around Rs 64 lakh on 16 occasions in an account in the name of his deceased mother-in-law from July 11, 2020, to March 25, 2022, in Axis Bank, Malkangiri branch.
Dash revealed that in order to avoid scrutiny he was limiting the cash deposits to Rs 1.98 lakh (below 2 Lakhs) on most occasions.
He was also operating one more account in SBI, Keonjhar Branch in name of his deceased mother-in-law.
Dash was arrested on March 29 and forwarded to court on March 30 for possessing disproportionate assets.
During searches conducted for five days by Vigilance following Dash’s interception on March 25, the anti-graft agency was able to unearth assets worth about Rs 9 crore in his name and in the name of his family members.
