Bhubaneswar: Odisha vigilance sleuths on Sunday arrested forest range officer of Rahama in Jagatsinghpur district, Rajendra Kumar Samantray, for allegedly accumulating assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The officer is owner of a palatial multi-storey building at Chatara village, a double-storey building at his nati
ve Samantarapur and five valuable plots. The raids also led to recovery of cash amounting to Rs 3.69 lakh, gold jewellery weighing around 250 grams, and bank and postal deposits worth over Rs 80 lakh, the sources of which he could not explain satisfactorily.
One car and two two-wheelers were also seized.
Samantray had joined government service as a forester on November 26, 1985, with a monthly salary of Rs 1,500. Subsequently, he was promoted to deputy ranger under Angul forest division (territorial). In 2023, he was promoted to the rank of ranger and joined the Rahama forest range.