Rs 2 crore assets found in suspended Muzaffarpur SSP’s bank lockers

PATNA: The special vigilance unit (SVU) on Wednesday unearthed fixed deposits (FDs) in banks worth Rs 1.65 crore, jewellery worth Rs 32.25 lakh and Rs 18 lakh in cash from two lockers located at State Bank of India’s Ansari Road branch in Muzaffarnagar (UP) as raids continued on the third consecutive day in connection with the disproportionate assets case acquired by suspended Muzaffarpur SSP Vivek Kumar and his family members.
SVU sources said the keys of six lockers were recovered from the residence of Kumar’s in-laws at Ayrapuri Colony in Muzaffarnagar district on Tuesday and two of them were opened on Wednesday.

The SVU had conducted raids on Kumar office and official residence at Muzaffarpur and his parental residence at Varun Vihar in Saharanpur in UP besides his in-laws’ house at Muzaffarnagar on Monday.

“From the first locker, Rs18 lakh and jewellery worth Rs 2.25 lakh were recovered while jewellery worth Rs 30 lakh and papers of FDs worth Rs1.65 crore were seized from the second locker. The FDs were in the name of Kumar and his in-laws,” sources said.

They said eight life insurance policy documents were also recovered from Kumar’s Saharanpur house. The SVU sleuths were scrutinizing the papers.

Sources said out of the three police readers of Kumar at Muzaffarpur, one Dinesh Yadav has gone underground and his cellphone was switched off. Sources said a couple of station house officers and a senior police officer in the district have also proceeded on leave citing different personal reasons soon after the raids. A country-made carbine was also recovered from Kumar’s office inside the official residence on Tuesday.

The SVU had unearthed movable assets worth at least Rs 1.06 crore against the likely savings of Rs 33.3 lakh, almost three times more than his known sources of income at the time of lodging of an FIR on April 15. The 2007 batch Bihar cadre IPS officer amassed the wealth in his and his family members’ name since 2005. He was an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer prior to his selection as an IPS officer.