According to officials, the vigilance wing of Odisha Police conducted raids on 23rd June at various locations within the state, resulting in the recovery of more than Rs 3 crore in cash from the residences of a government officer.

During multiple raids conducted at the residences of Prasanta Kumar Rout, an Odisha Administrative Officer (OAS) serving as the additional sub-collector in Nabarangpur district, officials from the department discovered a substantial sum of cash.

According to the investigating officers the raids, carried out in Bhubaneswar, Nabarangpur, and other locations, revealed that Rout was in possession of a significant amount of money.

As per officials, when personnel from the vigilance wing arrived at the residence in Kanan Vihar, the wife of the accused officer reportedly threw six cartons filled with cash onto their neighbor's terrace. She allegedly requested the neighbors to hide the currency.

After being recovered from the neighbor's house, the boxes were subsequently retrieved, and the cash inside was counted using multiple counting machines, according to the officials.

Additionally, during the raids at Prasanta Kumar Rout's residence in Nabarangpur, officials discovered Rs 89.5 lakh in cash along with gold ornaments.

“This is the second biggest recovery of cash from a government official in the state. In April 2022, we had recovered Rs 3.41crore cash during raids on properties of Kartikeswar Roul, who was posted as an assistant engineer in Minor Irrigation Division in Ganjam district,” an official statement issued by the Vigilance Department said.

According to the information provided, a total of nine teams from the department were involved in conducting the searches.

It is worth noting that Prasanta Kumar Rout had previously been arrested in 2018 on charges of allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a panchayat executive officer during his tenure as a BDO in Sundargarh district.

Image source: Deccan Herald