Odisha Vigilance Traces More Gold Jewellery, Coins In ‘Corrupt’ Engineer’s Bank Lockers, Total 2.5 Kg

Bhubaneswar: A day after claiming to have made the highest-ever cash seizure of about Rs 1.36 crore, Odisha Vigilance on Tuesday informed about 850 gm gold being seized from the bank locker of Malkangiri Rural Development-I Superintending Engineer Ashish Kumar Dash in Bank of Baroda, Niladri Vihar Branch, in Bhubaneswar.

Another 383 gm of gold, including 10 coins of 10 gms each, were recovered and seized during search and inventory of locker in Axis Bank, Gunupur Branch, in Rayagada district.

While 2.5 kg of gold has been recovered so far, further searches continuing, an official release said.

On the fourth day of their operation, the anti-corruption wing had seized Rs 1.15 crore and 632 gm gold, including biscuits and coins, from  Dash’s flat near Cuttack, while Rs 21.75 lakh and 602 gm of gold were earlier recovered from his government quarter and office.

The Vigilance sleuths also stumbled upon gold coins – 45 coins (10 gram), 16 coins (5 gram) two biscuits (50 gram) and 19 coins (10 mg).

The engineer operated 12 accounts in Axis Bank from where Rs 2.25 crore cash deposits were seized. Earlier, deposits worth Rs 1.77 crore were unearthed. With this, the engineer’s bank deposits (fixed deposits, savings, and insurances) stood at Rs 4 crore.