Former govt officer found to be billionnaire during EOW raids

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Madhya Pradesh police has found that a retired official of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department allegedly owns assets worth at least a hundred crore rupees.

During the raids conducted Tuesday at four properties of Suresh Upadhyay, a former sub divisional officer, it was found that his family owns 70 acres of land, an official said.

"We found incriminating documents showing that Upadhyay, his wife Anuradha and son Sachin own 70 acres of land including residential plots at prime locations in the district," said Raj Vardhan Maheshwari, Deputy Superintendent of Police, EOW Jabalpur.

"We also seized around two kg of gold, five kg of silver and Rs 2.5 lakh cash," he added.

Upadhyay's family owns two firms including a real estate company and two Sport Utility Vehicles, he added.

"We got a huge cache of incriminating documents....It will take some time to calculate the amount of wealth which is disproportionate to his known sources of income," the DSP said.

A case was registered against Upadhyay, his wife and son under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Maheshwari added. They have not been arrested yet.

Another senior official said, on the condition of anonymity, that the value of all the assets was easily more than Rs 100 crore.

EOW Superintendent of Police Devendra Singh Rajput said they were still getting tip-offs about Upadhyay's properties.

Tuesday's raid followed a tip that Upadhyay owns hundreds of acres of land bought from money earned through alleged corruption, another official said.