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| Bhagyadhar Das, who works as a peon at the collector's office in Cuttack, amassed a fortune worth crores of rupees in a very short span. |
Incredible though it may sound, vigilance sleuths on Wednesday discovered that a class-IV employee Bhagyadhar Das, who works as a peon at the collector's office in Cuttack and earns less than Rs 10,000 per month is the proud owner of assets worth above Rs 2 crore. Such was the meteoric rise of Bhagyadhar Das (55) of Upula village in Jajpur district, who works as a peon at the collector's office in Cuttack.
Sources said Das amassed a fortune worth crores of rupees in a very short span. He owns palatial houses in Chatia, Upula, Duburi in Jajpur and Joda in Keonjhar district, besides other places. He also owns huge amounts of property, including land, cash and jewellery, as the vigilance sleuths found out on Wednesday during a surprise raid of his houses. The officials also found about 450 gm of gold along with huge amounts of cash from his houses.
Das earlier worked as a chainman in the land consolidation department at Chatia for 20 years. Two years ago, he was transferred to the record room of the collector's office in Cuttack as a peon.
The vigilance officials and police were surprised at the amount of money Das had spent on the construction and decoration of the houses in Upala, Chatia and Dubari."Based on a complaint, the officials of the state vigilance department raided his houses and were surprised when they found that the former chainman had assets worth more than Rs 2 crore," said Bhrata Chandra Sethi, the deputy superintendent of police (vigilance) in Jajpur.
Das owns various movable assets like expensive household articles, two luxury cars and gold ornaments weighing about 450 gm. He also owns four trucks. Moreover, a car for his personal use and two-wheelers were found to be in the possession of the peon, whose retirement age is nearing, said the official. Deposits made by him in different banks have been seized. Investigation in the matter is on, said the official.
