Raid on, officer kin fling Rs 2cr cash on neighbour's roof

BHUBANESWAR: To save their ill-gotten money, a government officer's family stuffed cash in cardboard boxes and threw the cartons on a neighbour's terrace when vigilance sleuths came knocking at their door in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
The desperate bid, however, did not pay off as some alert officers noticed it and seized the cash, amounting to Rs 2 crore.
The drama unfolded when the vigilance department team raided the house of Odisha Administrative Service officer Prasanta Kumar Rout in Bhubaneswar. Rout was in Nabarangpur, where he is currently posted as additional sub-collector, at that time.
The raids took place at both Bhubaneswar and Nabarangpur and a total of Rs 2.91 crore in cash was seized from the two houses.
"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 immediately despite being informed about the court order regarding the raid, as they just wanted to buy time to dispose of the cash," a vigilance officer said.
"We saw them throwing some cartons on their neighbour's terrace and rushed there to find bank notes stashed in the boxes. There were six boxes containing Rs 2.03 crore in cash, all in Rs 500 notes," the officer added.
Rout's family members later opened the door and during its search of the house, the team found documents related to several immovable properties and passbooks of bank deposits. During the search operation in Nabarangpur, the sleuths seized around Rs 89 lakh in cash. The searches were on till evening to unearth Rout's disproportionate assets.
The vigilance department suspects Prasanta KumarRout amassed the huge amount by misappropriating government funds and taking undue benefits by abusing his power.
Rout, who joined government service in July 1996, had been arrested by the vigilance department on November 6, 2018, for accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh during his tenure as a block development officer in Sundargarh district.