State registers 92 DA cases against corrupt staff, highest in country

Bhubaneswar: Continuing with chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s zero tolerance policy to corruption, the Odisha vigilance directorate registered 92 disproportionate assets (DA) cases against corrupt government employees in 2021, the highest in the country, revealed the latest finding of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka stood second and third respectively with 70 and 42 DA cases during the period. With 98 trap cases, involving arrest of corrupt government officers while taking bribes, Odisha stood seventh. Maharashtra topped with registration of 764 trap cases last year, the NCRB report stated.
The overall registration of vigilance cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, went up from 245 in 2020 to 265 in 2021. The conviction rate of the vigilance cases stood at 42.5% last year, the report indicated.
According to the vigilance directorate, the 92 DA cases were registered against 111 public servants and 44 private persons last year. At least 12 DA cases were registered against class-I officers and 17 DA cases against class-II officers. Movable and immovable assets worth Rs 107.6 crore were unearthed from all the tainted employees in the 92 cases.
In November last year, detection of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 14.88 crore in the name of Pratap Kumar Samal, a former deputy manager of the Odisha police housing and welfare corporation, is still at an all-time high in the state. He had allegedly tried to throw away around Rs 20 lakh cash to his neighbours terrace during the vigilance raid.
House searches in DA cases led to seizure of whopping cash from several tainted officers last year. A record amount of Rs 41.77 lakh in cash was seized from the house of Santosh Kumar Das, a former assistant engineer of the integrated tribal development agency at Baripada, on November 26, 2021.