Bihar official's house raided over disproportionate assets

The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of police conducted a raid at the house of a Bihar government official over his disproportionate assets, an official said Thursday.

The EOU team raided the house of Ishwar Dayal, block development officer (BDO) of Mohiuddin Nagar in Samastipur district Wednesday and seized disproportionate assets worth Rs.91 lakh.

A First Information Report was lodged against Dayal under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

"Ishwar Dayal has acquired most of his property after being promoted to the post of BDO in 2009. He lived like a king... Not only was his pressure cooker a silver one, he also had three silver spittoons," an official said.

Dayal has purchased a plot of 700 square feet in Rajasthan's Pokhran, where India carried out its nuclear tests.

"It surprised us all that he purchased land in Pokhran. But the price of this piece of land has not been shown in any of related documents seized by the EOU team," EOU official Praveen Vashishta told IANS.

In the last one-and-half months, police have raided eight government officials in Patna and elsewhere in the state and recovered assets worth crores of rupees.

The state government sacked 95 corrupt officials till the second week of February and will dismiss 21 more this month and 129 in March, Chief Secretary A.K. Sinha said.