Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance has registered 516 criminal cases and arrested 537 government officers and others between 12 June 2024 and 26 October 2026, according to the department’s performance report. The drive targeted disproportionate assets, bribery and misappropriation of public funds.
Cases were registered against 134 Class-I officers, including one IAS officer, eight Chief Engineers, two Divisional Forest Officers, one Sub-Collector, four Block Development Officers, nine Tahasildars and several other senior officials such as Joint Commissioners, Deputy Directors of Mines, Project Directors and Superintendents of Excise. Among those arrested were 87 engineers, 64 revenue officials, 45 Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water officials, 11 doctors, 22 forest officials, 34 police officers and functionaries from other departments.
Disproportionate assets and recoveries
Vigilance registered 140 disproportionate assets (DA) cases involving assets worth approximately ₹332 crore. Searches yielded 353 buildings, 39.781 kg of gold, 1,471 plots, 25 farmhouses, bank deposits of ₹72.43 crore and cash seizures of ₹19.05 crore.
Major cash recoveries included: ₹4.28 crore from Debabrata Mohanty, Deputy Director of Mines, Cuttack Circle
₹2.56 crore from Baikuntha Nath Sarangi, Chief Engineer, Plan Roads, Rural Works Department
₹2.08 crore from Santanu Mohapatra, Deputy Director & Project Director, Watershed, Malkangiri
₹1.43 crore from Rama Chandra Nepak, Deputy Ranger, Jeypore Forest Range
₹73.66 lakh from Jitendra Kumar Panda, Additional Tahasildar, Barang
₹57 lakh from Dhiman Chakma, IAS (2021 batch), Sub-Collector, Dharamgarh (including ₹10 lakh bribe and ₹47 lakh from his official residence)
₹48.79 lakh from Bidyut Ranjan Bhol, Deputy Manager, Odisha Police Housing & Welfare Corporation
Among the largest DA cases were those against Baikuntha Nath Behera (AEE, ITDA Baliguda – ₹12.72 crore), Debabrata Mohanty (₹4.91 crore), Umakant Samantaray (Asst. Director, Factories & Boilers – ₹4.80 crore) and several Executive Engineers with assets ranging from ₹3.95 crore to ₹4.73 crore.Trap cases and interceptions
A total of 232 trap cases were registered against 274 persons, including 31 Class-I and 38 Class-II officers, for demanding and accepting bribes worth ₹58.39 lakh. Notable traps included the nabbing of Debabrata Mohanty while accepting ₹30,000 (followed by the ₹4.28 crore recovery), Satyajit Rout (Deputy Director of Mines, Koraput) for ₹2 lakh, and several others involving bribes ranging from ₹15,000 to ₹2 lakh linked to clearances, subsidies, licences and work certificates. Nine persons, including five Class-I officers, were intercepted carrying unaccounted cash totalling ₹28.69 lakh.
Misappropriation cases
Vigilance registered 144 cases involving alleged misappropriation of ₹76.96 crore against 371 persons. Major cases included embezzlement of over ₹9.24 crore in the office of the Superintending Engineer, R&B Division-I, Bhubaneswar; an ₹8.04 crore fraud linked to a former Senior Assistant at Chandbali Sub-Treasury; and misappropriations exceeding ₹5 crore, ₹3 crore and ₹2 crore in education, rural development, forest, health and other departments.
Investigation, disposal and prosecution
Searches were conducted at 1,190 locations. Authorities froze 2,281 bank accounts and evaluated 490 properties worth about ₹102.30 crore in 219 cases. The department recorded its highest-ever disposal of 933 cases after investigation, achieving a disposal rate of 181 per cent. No year-old trap case remained pending. Charge sheets were filed in 758 cases against 1,681 persons. Courts convicted 317 persons in 242 cases, yielding an overall conviction rate of around 65 per cent (80 per cent in DA cases). Following convictions, 41–42 government functionaries were dismissed from service and pension was stopped for 91 retired public servants.
Odisha Vigilance stated that the period saw sustained action against corruption across engineering, revenue, forest, mines, health, education and other wings of the state administration.
