The Vigilance police on Monday carried out simultaneous raids on properties of six former Government officials in different parts of the State in connection with a major land fraud case probe.
As per reports, the house searches were continuing at nine places including the twin cities of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and also in Bhadrak and Jagatsinghpur districts. As many as nine Vigilance teams led by an Additional SP, 11 DSPs, six Inspector rank officers are conducting raids at multiple locations in four districts. The officials who are under scanner include former Kujang Tehsildar Ramesh Chandra Panda, former Jagatsinghpur Sub-Collector Mahendra Prasad Mohanty, former Jhimani Circle Revenue Inspector Santosh Kumar Mallick, former Paradigarh RI Narendra Kumar Lenka, former Kujang RI Subash Chandra Das, and Pandua Circle RI Jyoti Bhusan Barik.
The raids are being conducted over charges of criminal misconduct, misappropriation, forgery and criminal conspiracy by these former Government officials in illegally settling valuable Government land under Odisha Government Land Settlement Act in favour of in-eligible beneficiaries under Vasundhara scheme.
The Vigilance Directorate had registered a case under Sections 13(2), 13(1)(a) of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 and Sections 466/409/120-B of the IPC in this connection.