The Vigilance police on Tuesday arrested Rama Chandra Jena, Nimapada, and in-charge Sub-Registrar on the charge of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Rama Chandra’s younger brother Laxman Jena was also arrested for being actively involved in his brother’s corrupt activities and managing the ill-gotten money. Later, both were forwarded to court.
In the morning, Vigilance officials intercepted the Tehsildar near his official residence at Nimapada and recovered Rs 4.65 lakh from him while he was about to hand over the money to Laxman, which he could not account for satisfactorily. Laxman was working as a truck helper in 2002-2003 and a truck driver in 2006-2007. He then drove a taxi in Bhubaneswar in 2012-2013 and Mo Bus in 2018-201. Then, he was unemployed after quitting Mo Bus service. But lakhs of rupees were deposited in his bank account.
During investigation, Laxman confessed that in September, his brother Rama Chandra called him thrice to Nimapada and gave him Rs 2.5 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh amounting to total Rs 10 lakh bribe money for deposit in his ICICI bank account. The bank passbook has been seized.On Monday night, Laxman received a telephone call from Rama Chandra to collect Rs 4.65 lakh next morning. Accordingly, he had come to collect the money from his brother but was nabbed. During search at the Tehsildar’s residence, five PAN cards bearing his different dates of birth and different “fathers’ names’ were seized. Cash of Rs 50,000 was also found in his residence.
The Income Tax Department has been informed about the seizure of multiple PAN cards, said a Vigilance official. Simultaneous searches were also conducted at Jena’s official residence in Nimapda, residence at CDA Sector-11 in Cuttack and native Dhanmandal village under Garadpur block in Kendrapada district. The Tehsildar was earlier involved in two other Vigilance cases over illegal settlement of valuable land and issuance of pattas and illegal conversion of agricultural land as non-agricultural.