In an early morning swoop here on Thursday, sleuths of the lokayukta police raided various residential and other premises of a veterinary officer and unearthed huge assets worth crores of rupees disproportionate to his known sources of income.
According to preliminary estimate, total value of assets unearthed by the lokayukta police has been estimated at Rs 15 crore and it may increase further once scrutiny of all documents procured during the course of raids is completed.
According to a senior official of the lokayukta police, the raids against the veterinary officer Dr Sharique Mohammad Sheikh, an assistant surgeon and administrative officer with the veterinary department were carried out today following complaints of large scale corruption and amassing of illegal wealth through unscrupulous means “We raided three places including the residence of , assistant surgeon and administrative officer of veterinary department and have stumbled upon incriminating documents showing unaccounted assets running into crores, said a lokayukta officer while talking to this newspaper adding that the final outcome of raids would be known only after complete scrutiny of all documents received from the premises of the accused.
According to preliminary estimate, the raids have disclosed that Sheikh, his wife and relatives own three houses, three tracts of lands, two agriculture lands, a goat farm, a farm house, hotel at Pachmarhi hill station in Hoshangabad district and three four wheelers, During the raids, the lokaykta sleuths also stumbled upon a cash of Rs 1.25 lakh, gold jewellery worth nearly Rs 11 lakh, 10 bank accounts among others. The accused had joined veterinary department in 1997 and he had fetched Rs 70 lakh as salary so far. “We are calculating his income disproportionate to his known sources of income, the officer said.
The veterinary officer has been booked under the relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act. Meanwhile, in a similar move, the lokayukta police today also raided the house of the in-charge of Indore Municipal Corporation-run Zoo Dr Uttam Yadav, the alleged business partner of Sheikh.