Raid on engineer in Patna yields cash, assets worth Rs 4.3 crore

PATNA: The vigilance investigation bureau sleuths on Friday unearthed cash and assets worth more than Rs 4.3 crore allegedly disproportionate to the known sources of income of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited (BRPNNL) executive engineer Ravindra Kumar (40).
The vigilance sleuths seized Rs1.43 crore in cash, fixed deposit of Rs20 lakh and Rs53 lakh deposited in 15 separate bank accounts, gold and silver ornaments worth over Rs67 lakh. They also unearthed movable and immovable assets worth more than Rs1.47 crore amassed by the engineer in the name of his wife Rajni Kumari Sinha and two children besides his own.
Armed with a search warrant after registering a disproportionate assets (DA) case against him on August 11, a vigilance team led by DSPs Sarvesh Kumar Singh, Aditya Raj, Pawan Kumar and Vikash Kumar Srivastava (probation) raided the engineer’s three-storey private residence, ‘Rajiya Niwas’, at Mohanpur in Punaichak locality of the state capital at 9.30am. The raid was going on till late evening. Ravindra was recently transferred from the road construction department at Hajipur in Vaishali district to the BRPNNL.
The vigilance sources said they have also found two bank accounts, a PPF account and life insurance of Rs52.9 lakh in Kumar’s name. “Two bank deposits, a recurring deposit and a PPF account having Rs29.3 lakh have been found in his wife’s name. Life insurance investments worth Rs11.5 lakh have been found in the name of Kumar’s two children,” a source said.
They said Kumar owns a 25.9 decimals plot at Jantipur, purchased in December 2015. Its deed price is Rs6.43 lakh. “A plot of 35.56 decimals at Kanhauli was purchased for Rs30.73 lakh in May 2014. Two plots of overall 65 decimals of Rs25.28 lakh was purchased at Vilaay in May 2013 in his wife’s name,” another senior officer said.
He said three separate plots of 3.5 decimals, 3.74 decimals and 2.49 decimals of Rs4.95 lakh, Rs28.12 lakh and Rs18.75 lakh deed value in Danapur was purchased in his wife’s name in June 2008, March 2019 and May 2019 respectively.
The vigilance sleuths had to requisition a currency counting machine from a nearby bank for counting the huge cash.
“An evaluator has been called to weigh ornaments and tell their exact value. We will be able to tell the exact value of items recovered and seized only after completing the raid,” a senior vigilance officer said, preferring anonymity.
He said besides cash, ornaments and passbooks of different bank accounts and life insurance documents, they are searching land deeds. The engineer said these were kept somewhere else, he said.
Sources said the vigilance started gathering information about his assets in October 2019. They said his earnings from salary since joining service on August 4, 2004, is Rs1.21 crore, which includes Rs1.85 lakh loan. “At FIR stage, he was found to be in possession of immovable properties worth Rs1.23 crore and movable assets worth Rs98.86 lakh. His son and daughter study in a noted private school in Patna,” another officer said.
He said Kumar’s estimated savings had been around Rs 73.85 lakh against the income of Rs1.21 crore.
“Another plot of 15.62 decimal valued Rs8.75 lakh was purchased in his wife’s name at Bihta in March 2018,” he said.