Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance officials on Thursday brought Santanu Mohapatra, Deputy Director & PD Watershed, Malkangiri, who was arrested on Wednesday for possessing huge disproportionate assets, to Bhubaneswar for the inventory of his locker at Kapilaprasad Branch of the State Bank of India (SBI).
During the inventory of the bank locker, the Vigilance sleuths have unearthed Rs 2 lakh cash and sale deeds and other land documents. With these, the total cash recovered from Mohapatra’s possession goes up to Rs 2,08,92,850. Searches are still underway.
Meanwhile, Vigilance officials suspect that Mohapatra and his colleagues have siphoned off large amounts of government funds by showing work done and making payments to labour accounts and subsequently withdrawing the money.
Numerous passbooks of different labourers were recovered during Vigilance searches at the residence of Mohapatra’s colleagues Biswajit Mandal, DEO, and Amiyakanta Sahu, a contractual employee of the office, on Wednesday. It appears that the labourers’ bank accounts were being operated by the accused for withdrawal and misappropriation of government funds.
A separate enquiry has been launched in this regard and the files connected to works shown completed in the last two years have been brought for scrutiny.
Investigation into the case has also revealed that one Alekh Chandra Pradhan, who is operating a Jan Seva Kendra at Jagannath Prasad in Ganjam, was acting as a conduit of Mohapatra in bribe collection. He was collecting bribes online from contractors and others on behalf of Mohapatra and transferring the money to accused Santanu Mohapatra. During the searches, Vigilance has found evidence of transfers done by Pradhan to the tune of more than Rs 1 crore between 2019 and 2024.
Currently, Vigilance officials are interrogating Pradhan for further details.
