Odisha anti-corruption wing officials on Friday were literally stunned to stumble upon the wealth and richness of a ‘corrupt’ government engineer, a day before his retirement, as they recovered Rs 2.52 crore in cash concealed in two houses owned by him.

The movable and immovable assets amassed by the engineer also included Rs 2.70 crore investment in the share market, buildings, and high-value plots at prime locations in the state.

Advertisement

Baikuntha Nath Sarangi, Chief Engineer (Plan Roads, RW Division, Odisha, Bhubaneswar), came under the vigilance scanner when simultaneous searches were conducted at multiple locations. During the search, bundles of Rs 500 currency notes were thrown out of the window of his house in Bhubaneswar. The notes, later recovered and counted, totalled Rs 37 lakh.

“On seeing the vigilance officers, Sarangi threw bundles of cash in Rs 500 denomination through the window of his flat in Bhubaneswar. The cash was recovered in the presence of witnesses,” an official said.

The search operation at the residences and the office of the engineer is still underway, the official added.

The vigilance sleuths have so far detected houses at different places, seven high-value plots on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar and Angul, besides bank and insurance deposits of Rs 1.5 crore in the name of Sarangi and his family members.

Sarangi, who will retire on Saturday, joined government service in 1991 as a Stipendiary Engineer with a consolidated monthly pay of Rs 2,000.