Odisha officer's family members throw Rs 2 crore cash on neighbour's terrace during vigilance raid

BHUBANESWAR: A raid by the Odisha Vigilance directorate on the house of a government officer in Bhubaneswar on Friday brought to fore a bizarre scene where his family members reportedly dumped about Rs 2 crore cash concealed in six cardboard boxes onto their neighbour’s terrace. However, their bid to save the “ill-gotten” money did not pay off as some alert vigilance officials noticed it and immediately seized the staggering amount of cash.
High drama unfolded when the vigilance sleuths knocked on the door of Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) officer Prasanta Kumar Rout, currently posted as an additional sub-collector in Nabarangpur district, at Kanan Vihar in the capital city. Rout was not at home as he was in Nabarangpur when the raid took place.
“As is our drill, we surrounded his house in Bhubaneswar while another team raided his house in Nabarangpur. His family members in Bhubaneswar did not open the door despite being informed about the court order. To buy time, they tried to dispose of the movable assets. We saw them throwing some carton boxes to their neighbour’s terrace. We rushed to their neighbour’s terrace and found huge cash stashed in the boxes. After counting, the six boxes were found to contain Rs 2.03 crore in cash, all in Rs 500 notes,” a vigilance official said.

Rout’s family members later opened the gate and allowed the vigilance officials to carry out the search operation. The officials found documents of several immovable properties and passbooks of bank deposits.
During the search operation in Nabarangpur, the vigilance officials seized around Rs 89 lakh in cash. Later in the evening, Rs 10.37 lakh more cash concealed behind the book self was unearthed from Rout's Bhubaneswar residence. In total, nearly Rs 3.02 crore in cash was seized from the two houses.
The sleuths suspect Rout amassed the huge amount by misappropriating government funds and taking undue benefits by abusing his power. At the time of filling the report, search operations were still under way at various places to unearth Rout’s disproportionate assets.
Interestingly, Rout, who had joined government service in July 1996, was arrested by the vigilance wing on November 6, 2018, for allegedly accepting Rs 1 lakh bribe during his tenure as a block development officer (BDO) at Bisra in Sundargarh district. The vigilance cell did not find disproportionate assets at that time.
On April 10, 2022, vigilance seized Rs 3.41 crore cash (highest till date) from Ganjam’s former assistant engineer Kartikeswar Roul’s residence in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. Friday’s seizure of Rs 3.02 crore cash from Nabarangpur additional sub-collector's houses is second highest cash recovery in a DA raid.