How did an engineer with a starting salary of ₹6,000 become the owner of property worth crores? Will 5 buildings, 13 plots and ₹2.04 crore cash found in Odisha Vigilance raid reveal a big secret? Will bank lockers, gold and investments prove the allegations of disproportionate assets? Is Baikunth Nath Behera case going to be among the biggest corruption revelations of Odisha?
Bhubaneswar: Can a government employee start his job with a salary of just ₹ 6,000 per month and build luxurious bungalows worth crores of rupees, dozens of valuable pieces of land and mountains of currency notes in banks? It sounds like a film script, but it has come to light as a reality in a mind-blowing raid by the Odisha Vigilance Team. In the case of disproportionate assets, the Vigilance Department has conducted such a strike on the premises of a government engineer, which has created a stir in the entire administrative department. Now the biggest question is that how and from what sources was such huge wealth accumulated?
Raid on 9 locations simultaneously, shocking secrets revealed
In the biggest ever action against corruption, Odisha Vigilance teams opened a front against Assistant Executive Engineer Baikunth Nath Behera of ‘Integrated Tribal Development Agency’ (ITDA) posted at Baliguda in Kandhamal district. As soon as the warrant was received from the Special Vigilance Court of Bhubaneswar, the Vigilance along with Additional SP, Deputy SP, dozens of Inspectors and heavy police force simultaneously raided 9 different places related to Behera. From Chandrashekharpur, Shailashree Vihar, Kanan Vihar in Bhubaneswar to his government residence and office in Jajpur, Baripada and Baliguda, immense wealth was found scattered everywhere.
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5 multi-storey buildings and 13 premium plots: where did this wealth come from?
When investigators searched the documents of properties registered in the name of Engineer Behera and his family, they were shocked. During the search, Vigilance has found 5 huge multi-storey buildings of this family. Only one of these buildings – located in Bhubaneswar’s Neeladri Vihar – is a luxurious four-storey mansion spread over approximately 10,500 square feet. Not only this, the officials have also found 13 very valuable land plots. Of these, 7 plots are in the most expensive and premium residential areas of Bhubaneswar, while the rest were purchased in prime locations like Jajpur and Baripada. Technical experts are now estimating the market value of these lands and houses, which is estimated to be several crores of rupees.
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When the bank locker was opened, ₹2 crore cash was found; Officials stunned to see the counting of notes!
The biggest and shocking turn in this entire investigation came when the Vigilance team opened the bank lockers belonging to Behera’s family. As soon as the locker was opened, the eyes of the officials were wide-eyed – there was cash worth more than ₹ 2 crores crammed inside. Cuttack Cell Division SP Sushant Kumar Biswal has confirmed that a total of ₹2.04 crore cash has been recovered so far during the raids. Apart from this, ₹2.66 lakh cash was also seized during the initial search of the house. Gold and investments under scrutiny: Evaluation of huge gold jewellery, bank deposits, postal savings and other financial investments found in the shelves is still underway. There is a possibility that this figure may go even higher.
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The journey from ₹ 6,000 to ₹ 80,000… 24 years of job and property worth crores, what is the complete mathematics?
According to government records, Baikunth Nath Behera had joined the government service as a junior engineer in 1999 with a starting monthly salary of just ₹6,000. After 24 years of service, he became Assistant Executive Engineer earlier this year and currently his salary was around ₹80,000 per month. Amassing such immense wealth despite such limited legitimate income is a direct testimony of huge corruption.
One of the biggest action against corruption
This is not an isolated case in Odisha, earlier another engineer Bhuvneshwar Sabar was found to have 97 plots and assets 210% more than the legal income. The discovery of assets worth ₹100 crore in the hands of a Water Board manager in Hyderabad shows how dangerous this trend of black money among government officials has become. At present, Behera’s bank accounts have been seized and it is certain that many more big names will be unmasked in the coming days.