Bhubaneswar: Continuing its investigation, the Odisha Vigilance on Monday seized deposits over Rs 50 lakh from nine bank accounts belonging to divisional forest officer (DFO) of Keonjhar Kendu Leaf division, Nityananda Nayak, and his family members.
Another Rs 8.5 lakh was recovered from his government quarters at Forest Colony, Keonjhar. “With this total cash seizure comes to over Rs 10 lakh, which includes Rs 1.55 lakh seized during searches yesterday. A large number of land documents, bank passbooks and documents related to insurance deposits have been recovered from his Keonjhar residence and are being verified,” a Vigilance release said.
It further stated that the DFO had declared only 12 plots in his property statements. “Nayak is being interrogated to ascertain the source of such huge asset generation as well as regarding non-intimation to authorities about purchase of such huge assets from time to time, and concealment of details in property statements submitted to the government each year,” it added.
The raids began at seven places, including Nayak’s parental house at Madanmohan Patna in Angul, government quarters in Keonjhar and residence of his son at Komanda in Nayagarh, on Sunday on allegations that he had accumulated assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
During the searches, the anti-corruption wing stumbled upon one four-storey building in Angul, a mini armoury, containing rifles and other weapons, 115 plots and a collection of teak artefacts. Two four-wheelers and four two-wheelers, gold weighing 200 gram and cash worth Rs 1.55 lakh were also found.
All 115 plots (53 in the name of Nayak, 42 in the name of his spouse, 16 in the name of his two sons and four in the name of his daughter) were purchased in Chhendipada area of Angul between 1992 and 2024.
This is the highest number of land holdings detected by the agency in the name of any government officer and his/her family till now. “The registered sale deed value of these plots is approximately Rs 2.5 crore. However, the actual value of these land holdings is likely to be higher than Rs 10 crore,” a senior official said.
The previous highest detected in a disproportionate assets (DA) case was 105 plots, belonging to the chief construction engineer of Anandpur barrage project in Keonjhar, Pravas Kumar Pradhan, in August last year.
Nayak joined government service as a Range Officer in 1992 and rose through the ranks to become DFO of the Kendu Leaf Division in in 2024