The Vigilance police on Saturday arrested Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) employee Biranchi Narayan Sahoo on the charge of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Sahoo is Private Secretary to OSSC Member
Besides, OSSC Member Nirmal Mishra said departmental proceedings would be initiated against Sahoo.
During searches on Sahoo’s properties on Friday, Vigilance officials had traced his assets worth over Rs 3.79 crore. The officials raided his residences at multiple locations in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
The officials unearthed two double-storied buildings at Niladri Vihar, Bhubaneswar, two single-storied buildings at Bhakti Vihar, Bhubaneswar and Godibandha, Cuttack, 14 plots of land in Bhubaneswar, Khordha and Puri, a four-wheeler, two two-wheelers, insurance deposits worth over Rs 56 lakh, cash of Rs 12 lakh from his house, Rs 13 lakh from a relative’s house, gold ornaments weighing around 1.5 kg worth over Rs 60 lakh.
Besides, bank slips indicating huge cash deposits in bank accounts were also recovered. Recruitment-related applicant admit cards and such other incriminating documents were also recovered during the searches.
The recovery of recruitment related documents and admit cards are pointing towards a possible manipulation in the SSC examinations by him.
The accused might have collected a huge sum of money from job aspirants on the pretext of helping them to get through the tests, Vigilance officials suspected.
But according to the intelligentsia, the million-dollar question is whether Sahoo was only involved in the wrongdoings or he was just a foot soldier and working on the behalf of some top mandarins of the OSSC.
That is what the anti-graft agency should find out if the 'Augean Stables' of the OSSC are to be cleaned, they added.