Odisha Vigilance arrests two officials on charges of disproportionate assets

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance Department on Wednesday arrested an Additional Tehsildar and a Panchayat Executive Officer (PEO) for possessing disproportionate assets (DA) beyond their known sources of income.

Jitendra Kumar Panda, Additional Tehsildar of Baranga in Cuttack district, and Jitendra Kumar Jena, PEO of Bancho GP in Keonjhar district, were arrested after a large property was recovered from them during raids conducted on Tuesday, a vigilance officer said. He said that during the raids on the properties of the Additional Tehsildar and PEO, vigilance officers found a large amount of property, including two multi-story buildings, a 2 BHK flat in Bhubaneswar, a multi-story building in Khurda town, and four high-value plots.

In addition, Panda was found in possession of Rs 73.66 lakh in cash, 560 grams of gold, a deposit of Rs 36.97 lakh, and a four-wheeler.

Similarly, officials from the Anti-Corruption Wing seized several assets, including a three-story building worth over ₹1.34 crore, a two-story market complex, six plots, 100 grams of gold, deposits worth ₹34.06 lakh, and a four-wheeler.

He said the Vigilance Department registered two separate cases against the two officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and arrested them on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Vigilance Department also arrested Phanindra Kumar Sahu, former managing director of the Jamankira Large-Sized Agricultural Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society (LAMPCS) Limited, Sambalpur, on charges of misappropriating government funds worth ₹79.28 lakh.

Sahu is accused of taking money directly from local farmers to repay loans but deliberately omitting these entries from the day book (main accounting record). To conceal the missing money, they allegedly submitted false repayment vouchers to the bank. These documents were reinforced with fake seals to mimic official bank verification, the official said.