Bhubaneswar: As the year 2024 comes to a close tonight, Odisha Vigilance has listed its achievements during the year. This year, Odisha Vigilance intensified its anti-corruption efforts across the state bringing to book several scrupulous government employees. Overall, the anti-corruption agency reported substantial progress in detecting, investigating, and prosecuting corruption cases, during the past year.
Odisha Vigilance registered 200 criminal cases leading to the arrest of 181 government officials and others. Cases were lodged against 50 Class-I officers, including 6 chief engineers, 2 assistant commissioners (CT&GST), a jail superintendent, and several other senior officials such as sub-collectors, tehsildars, and BDOs.
The arrested people included 19 engineers, 22 revenue officials, 20 PR & DW officials, 9 police officers, 5 doctors, and others.
A total of 60 disproportionate assets (DA) cases were registered, uncovering illicit assets worth over Rs 131 crore, while 96 trap cases were recorded, with 115 individuals, including 99 government officials, caught accepting bribes totalling Rs 19.25 lakh.
At the same time, searches were conducted at 483 locations across the state concerning trap and DA cases. Altogether 792 bank accounts linked to corrupt officials were frozen, and 194 buildings and projects, evaluated in 72 valuation cases, were assessed to be worth approximately Rs 27.03 crore.
Investigations were concluded in 307 cases, achieving the highest-ever disposal rate of 154%.
A total of 105 convictions were secured, maintaining a conviction rate of 50%. DA cases saw an even higher conviction rate of 80%. Following their convictions, 25 government officials were dismissed from service.