Indus Valley Times

By Sukant Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, June 24: The officials of the Odisha police’s vigilance wing were on Friday stunned as they stumbled upon a huge hoarding of cash of Rs 2.91 crore during raids at multi locations relating to one Prasanta Kumar Rout.

Prasanta Rout, an Odisha Administrative Officer, is currently posted as Sub-Collector, Nabarangpur district.

The sleuths of Odisha Vigilance on Friday raided the office, residence and other properties of Rout on the allegation of acquisition of disproportionate assets.

Rs 500 notes worth over Rs 2 crore stashed in six cartoons were seized from the house of Prasanta Rout’s neighbour during a raid at Kanan Vihar in Bhubaneswar. Similarly, Rs 91 lakh cash, all notes in the denomination Rs 500, was seized from his official residence at Nabarangpur and other places.

The counting of notes by machines was in progress till this report was filed.

Nine teams of the Odisha vigilance wing conducted simultaneous raids at nine places in Bhubaneswar, Nabarangpur and Bhadrak.

The raid was being conducted at his two-storeyed house in Kanan Vihar, Bhubaneswar; his residence and office in Nabarangpur and his ancestral home in Bhadrak. The Vigilance team was also conducting raids at the house of his relatives and close relatives, reports said.

There have been several allegations and complaints of corruption and bribery against Rout. After repeated complaints, the Vigilance swung into action and carried out the raids. Several important documents, bank passbooks and ATM cards have been seized from his possession.

However, the raid team is tight-lipped about the amount of movable and immovable properties detected so far.

In 2018, Rout was arrested by the Vigilance officials for demanding a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a panchayat executive officer while he was the BDO of a block in Sundargarh district. He is now accused of being hand in glove with several illegal stone mining mafias and getting hefty commissions from them.