Vigilance officials arrested Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) Jajpur Regional Officer Hadibandhu Panigrahi from Khandagiri in Bhubaneswar on Friday on the charge of amassing property disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Earlier on Thursday night, officials of the anti-graft wing had seized cash of Rs 96,000 and gold coins from the official and taken him to custody after he failed to give satisfactory answer about the possession of property during interrogation.
A Vigilance team later conducted raids on his office at Kalinganagar in Jajpur and his house at Khandagiri Bari in Bhubaneswar and reportedly detected disproportionate assets in his possession. Following this, the Vigilance police arrested Panigrahi and forwarded him to court.
The Vigilance had kept a close watch on the activities of Panigrahi for the last few days after receiving corruption allegations against him. On Thursday evening, when he was coming to Bhubaneswar from Jajpur after collecting cash from a crusher owner in Kalinganagar, Vigilance sleuths detained him and took him to custody.
The Vigilance team later unearthed disproportionate assets, including a plot at Angul, a house at Khandagiri, gold weighing 442 grams, over 1 kg of silver and three cars during the raids.
Sources said movable and immovable properties to the tune of Rs 1.36 crore in Panigrahi’s and his family’s names were detected during the raids.