Three years RI for fire officer, engineer

While the Cuttack vigilance court convicted the ex-fire officer Suresh Kumar Panda, the Bhubaneswar vigilance court held the ex-engineer Rabindranath Nayak guilty of corruption charges. Panda was also awarded with a fine of Rs 16 lakhs while the engineer escaped with a fine of only Rs 20,000.

Panda, an OPS-I officer has since retired from services and in the event that he fails to pay the fine, the convict shall undergo RI for another term of one year, said the special judge of the vigilance court which has been holding trial of the case since 2001.

The Cuttack vigilance cell had booked Panda under section 13 (2) and 13 (1)e of the Prevention of Corruption Act and was chargesheeted in the case.

Similarly, the Bhubaneswar vigilance court on the day convicting Nayak also slapped on him a fine of Rs 20,000.

In another related development, the anti-corruption wing of police also conducted house search in a DA case against a draughtsman of Bhubaneswar irrigation circle and detected movable and immovable assets worth over Rs one crore in the name of Pravakar Prusty.

The vigilance sleuths searched two residential houses in the name of Prusty at Bhubaneswar, his parental house in Dhenkanal district and a shop in his name located in a shopping complex at Bhubaneswar. The searches were conducted by the strength of a warrant issued by a Bhubaneswar special court.

The sleuths found movable assets like costly household articles, a car, two scooters worth over Rs 16 lakhs, machineries in his shop worth over Rs 21 lakhs, silver ornaments worth over Rs 65,000, deposits in various banks to the tune of Rs 2 lakh and cash of Rs 52,595 in his possession.

The vigilance sleuths also detected immovable assets in the name of Prusty like two numbers of triple-storied building at Paika Nagar and Satabdi Nagar in Bhubaneswar and share of paternal house in Dhenkanal worth over Rs 66 lakhs.