Bhubaneswa: The Odisha Vigilance on Wednesday arrested Jitendra Kumar Panda, Additional Tahasildar of Barang in Cuttack district, on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Panda (50) was taken into custody following intensive raids and will be produced before the Special Judge, Vigilance, in Bhubaneswar, a Vigilance release said.
The arrest stems from simultaneous searches conducted on December 30 at multiple properties linked to Panda in Bhubaneswar, Khurda, and Cuttack. Vigilance teams unearthed a trove of unexplained wealth, including two multi-storey buildings in Bhubaneswar, a 2-BHK flat at Uttara, also in the state capital, a multi-storey building in Khurda town, four high-value plots, approximately 560 grams of gold, bank and postal deposits worth over Rs 36.97 lakh, and a four-wheeler and four two-wheelers worth Rs 23.40 lakh.
Cash recoveries totalled Rs 73.66 lakh, including a major haul of Rs 70 lakh stashed in the locked house of his mother-in-law at Badagada Brit Colony in Bhubaneswar.
Officials said that he could not satisfactorily explain the source of these lavish assets, prompting the registration of a case against him and his subsequent arrest.
Panda, who joined government service in 1995 as a senior laboratory Assistant with a starting salary of just Rs 2,000 per month, currently earns a gross salary of approximately Rs 1.23 lakh. He has been posted as Additional Tehsildar in Barang since July 2023.
