Bhubaneswar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Bhubaneswar-based stone miner Ratikanta Rout in connection with a long-pending money-laundering investigation tied to alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district.
Rout, a resident of Kalarahanga with stone quarry and crusher businesses in the area, was taken into custody on Thursday following interrogation at the agency’s regional office in the state capital.
Trouble for the quarry operator began in 2024 when the ED registered a money-laundering case against him, following initial actions by the Dhenkanal Police over allegations of large-scale financial irregularities and illegal stone extraction. As part of the probe, central investigators issued multiple summons and carried out coordinated raids on January 8, 2025, searching Rout’s residential premises, commercial offices, and properties linked to his close acquaintances. Based on the evidence collected during the prolonged inquiry, including bank records and business transactions, the agency proceeded with the arrest.
The development, however, carries an unusual twist. Rout was the complainant whose tip-off more than a year earlier led to the arrest of senior ED officer Chintan Raghuvanshi. In May 2025, the CBI trapped and arrested Raghuvanshi, then deputy director of the ED’s Bhubaneswar zonal office and a 2013-batch Indian Revenue Service officer, along with a middleman identified as Bhaghti, for allegedly accepting ₹20 lakh as the first instalment of ₹2 crore bribe deal to settle and dismiss the money-laundering proceedings against the miner.