IDCO official arrested on graft charge

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance department on Thursday arrested a junior manager of the State-run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) after detecting disproportionate assets, including a palatial house worth over Rs 3.22 crore, in his possession.

The arrested official, Bijay Kumar Udaysingh, was a junior manager (civil) in Bhubaneswar Construction Division-II of IDCO, the Vigilance department said in a statement. Apart from the four-storey building in Bhubaneswar, he was found in possession of disproportionate assets, including a flat, three high-value plots in Bhubaneswar and Khurda, deposits over Rs 55.5 lakh, and Rs 4.5 lakh in cash, which he could not explain satisfactorily, it said.

Besides, one four-wheeler and three two-wheelers along with gold and household articles worth Rs 29 lakh were also found in his possession, the statement said. The Vigilance department personnel raided six places, including Udaysingh’s house in Bhubaneswar, a flat in Balukhand, his parental house and a crusher unit at Mundamba village in Jankia, the house of a relative in Samantarapur and his chamber in the IDCO office here on Wednesday and unearthed the assets.

In this connection, the Bhubaneswar unit of the Vigilance department registered a corruption case against Udaysingh and continued further investigation.

“As many as six teams of Odisha Vigilance comprising eight DSPs, eight Inspectors and other supporting staff conducted the search on the strength of search warrants issued by the Hon’ble Court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar,” said Vigilance sources.

Notably, the Director of Odisha Vigilance, Y K Jethwa, had recently revealed that information about 14 engineers and government officials caught in the Vigilance net have been shared with various other agencies, including Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate, which may initiate probe into these cases, if needed.