Vigilance sleuths have raided houses of three transport officials, including former Baragarh RTO, who are accused of money laundering, at various places in the State.
The raid was conducted on the basis of an inquiry report submitted to the State Government by a team of road and transport officials led by Deputy Commissioner Chittaranjan Raya on the alleged cyber fraud at the Bargarh RTO. The report accused MVI Prasanna Das, clerk Kanhu Sathpathy and former Baragarh RTO Basanta Behera along with outsourcing company Smart Chipper’ programme officer Josobanta Panda, Subrat Maharana and Sanjeeb Behera of bungling a whopping amount of Rs 41.58 lakh.
A case was also registered against the accused in the Bargarh town police station. The outsourcing firm was employed for collection of toll for the last five years on behalf of the RTO. It managed to earn lakhs of rupees by illegally using computer account passwords. The Vigilance team conducted raid at Behera’s house at Ranihat in Cuttack, his present Chhatrapur RTO office and his wife Arati Mallik’s Government residence in Cuttack. They found that Behera owns a flat in Duduma Kasmopoli Apartment worth Rs 50 lakh, another flat in Patia in Bhubaneswar worth Rs 50 lakh, a car worth Rs 10 lakh, ornaments worth Rs 3 lakh and bank deposits of Rs 50 lakh.
Similarly, during raids, it was found that MVI Das owns a three-storied building at Arunedayanager worth Rs 50 lakh and deposits and insurance policies worth lakhs of rupees. Clerk Sathpathy’s house at Attabira in Bargarh district was also raided. Satpathy and the outsourcing employees are absconding now, police said. locals have demanded that top-to-bottom employees Bargarh RTO be raided by the Vigilance department.