‘Rs 70 Lakh Deposited In Bank Accounts Of Suspended Odisha IAS Officer From 2012-2019’

Bhubaneswar: A day before suspended IAS officer Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya’s bail plea hearing, the office of Director of Vigilance Odisha, Cuttack, in a release, said that it had traced Rs.70 lakh cash deposits in three banks while investigating the bribery charges against him.

The cash deposits were made both in counter and through cash accepting machines between 2012 and 2019, the release said.

“There has been a trend of multiple cash deposits in split up amounts on a single day and on successive days. Of total cash deposits of Rs.70 lakhs, cash deposits of around Rs. 22 lakhs relate to Dr. Upadhyaya’s tenure as Director of Horticulture. Money transactions in a number of linked accounts have been found which are being verified,” it said.

Some suspicious accounts have also been found through which illegal gratification is suspected to have been routed, it added.

The anti-corruption officials had arrested the 2009-batch IAS officer on December 30 for allegedly demanding bribe from an empanelled sprinkler irrigations systems supplier for passing a bill. The relationship manager of YES Bank, Santosh Kumar Pattanayak, was earlier apprehended for allegedly accepting the Rs 1 lakh bribe on behalf of Upadhyaya.

“Cash deposits of about Rs 7 lakh have been made in his bank account during the last 5 months after he joined YES Bank,” the release further said.

The vigilance had earlier taken them on remand for interrogation. The IAS officer was sent to Jharpada jail after the end of the remand period on January 6. The Special Vigilance Court had posted the next hearing on Upadhyay’s bail plea to Wednesday ( January 8).