Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance has arrested the Excise Superintendent of Rourkela following the seizure of suspected ill-gotten cash to the tune of Rs 5 lakh from his possession.

Dhaneswar Barad, the Excise Superintendent of Rourkela, was arrested in connection with an interception case and produced in a Special Vigilance Court in Sundargarh, said an official on Saturday.

The Vigilance sleuths had intercepted a vehicle in front of the Excise Superintendent’s office at Uditnagar in Rourkela on Friday and conducted searches. They recovered Rs 5 lakh in cash from the vehicle.

The salesman of a local wine shop was allegedly carrying the money. During interrogation, he admitted that the Rourkela Excise Superintendent had given him the cash.

The Excise Superintendent also admitted that he had sent the cash through the salesman. The Vigilance official seized the money after the Excise Superintendent failed to give proper account in this regard.

Following the seizure, simultaneous searches were carried out at two locations linked to the Excise Superintendent.

During searches, the Vigilance officials unearthed several high-value assets including a double-storeyed building at Raghunathpur in the capital city, 4 plots in the city here and Nayagarh, Rs 33.97 lakh in bank deposits from the possession of the Excise Superintendent. 

“Documents relating to other investments and deposits have been recovered and are under verification. After thorough search, inventory and further enquiry, the income, expenditure and assets of the Excise Superintendent, it was found that was found he possessed disproportionate assets which were 100 per cent in excess of his known sources of income,” said the Odisha Vigilance.

The Vigilance police in Rourkela registered a case against the Excise Superintendent under Sections 13(2) and 13(1)(b) of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.