Odisha Vigilance arrests senior officer on corruption charges

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance Tuesday arrested a senior officer after detecting in his possession assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, officials said.

“Dayanidhi Bagh, joint director, Soil Conservation & Watershed Development, Bhubaneswar, has been placed under arrest by Odisha Vigilance for possession of disproportionate assets and will be forwarded to the court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhawanipatna,” an official statement said.

The Vigilance Department conducted raids on the properties of the joint director, following allegations that he amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

During the raids, he was found in possession of disproportionate assets, including two buildings, one flat, 84 acres of land, 312 grams of gold, bank deposits of over Rs 58 lakh, one benami car, etc., the statement said.

In this connection, a case has been registered at Koraput Vigilance police station against Bagh and he has been arrested, a Vigilance official said.

Bag was a former project director (PD) of the Watershed Department in Rayagada.

On May 22 this year, the Anti-corruption Department arrested four officials of the office of the project director of the Watershed Department in Rayagada for allegedly embezzling Rs 20 lakh of government money without excavating 23 ponds in different villages of Kashipur block in Rayagada district under MGNREGA, he said.

Since then, the former project director of the Watershed Department in Rayagada was under the scanner of the Vigilance department, he added.

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