Dismissed police constable found to posess property worth crores of rupees

The anti-corruption vigilance sleuths Thursday detected moveable and immovable assets worth crores of rupees in the possession of a police constable, who was dismissed from service and sent to jail after he was found running a bar illegally here.

The constable was working under the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police commissionerate, an official statement said.

The vigilance sleuths conducted raids at five properties owned by the constable following an allegation that he possessed properties disproportionate to his known sources of income, it said.

The raids were conducted at the constable's residential quarter here and at four other properties, including in his native viallge Nuapada in Khurda district, the statement said.

It was found that he had extended his government quarter illegally by adding eight rooms

without authorisation. It is being probed by the vigilance technical wing, it said.

The statement department said the constable's furniture showroom at Dumduma in the city stands on a plot measuring around .25 acre, which was registered in 2019 with sale deed worth Rs 1,47,60,000. The cost of the furniture showroom with built up area of around 18,000 sqft, including basement and ground floor, is worth over Rs 2 crore.

This apart, he also owns a plot worth Rs 45 lakh at Nuapada in Khurda, one flat in the name of his spouse worth Rs 24 lakh at Sundarpada here, insurance policies of over Rs 50 lakh in his and his family members' names, it said.

The man also possessed four four-wheelers and two two-wheelers.

A total of 21 bank passbooks have been found during the house search so far, the vigilance department said. Further searches are still on.

The vigilance technical wing has been asked to carry out the valuation of the buildings, while the vigilance finance wing and vigilance forest wing personnel along with professional furniture manufacturer will evaluate the huge number of costly furniture items displayed in the show room, the statement said.

The man was also the president of Odisha Constable and Havildar Association and was dismissed from service on October 24 following his arrest for allegedly running a hotel without license and flouting COVID-19 guidelines.

He co-managed the bar, a fact which came to the fore during an investigation into a murder case.

Eight departmental proceedings and five criminal cases are pending against him, the police said.