The Odisha vigilance on Thursday carried out raids at seven different locations related to divisional forest officer (DFO) of Rayagada Peripheral, Bijay Kumar Parida, to unearth illegal wealth amassed by him.

The agency has so far found assets worth Rs 4 crore disproportionate to the government officer’s known sources of income. “The raid is still going on. We are quite amazed to see his huge properties. The estimation of the value of properties will be done once the investigation is over,” said a senior vigilance officer.

The vigilance in a media release said it has found one G+3-storeyed building of 9,500 square feet with an approximate valuation of Rs 1.8 crore. Besides this building, it has also found one three-storeyed building and a flat in Bhubaneswar. It has also detected eight plots in the name of Parida’s family in the prime areas of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri.

“The measurement, valuation and assessment of the above flat, buildings and plots is being carried out by the vigilance technical wing. Bank, insurance, and other deposits are under verification,” said the release.

Sources said the Naveen Patnaik government has intensified its operation to weed out the corrupt elements from the government system. Even those officers who indulged in corruption during their tenure but managed to escape the vigilance net are now being brought under the vigilance scanner.

In a related development, a former block development officer (BDO), who was arrested from New Delhi on Monday, was sent to judicial custody on Wednesday till September 5. There were seven corruption cases registered against the former BDO, Ramesh Chandra Sahoo, and he had been absconding for the last eight years.

The inquiry against Sahoo began in 2014-2015 when he was the BDO at Narayanpatna in Koraput district. He was placed under suspension in February 2015. Based on the government’s audit report, the vigilance lodged seven cases. When the inquiry began, fearing arrest, he absconded and no one was able to trace him till he was finally arrested from Delhi.

Sahoo misappropriated funds to the tune of nearly Rs 35 lakh without even executing the works of various developmental projects such as buildings and roads. “Although it was shown on paper that anganwadi centre buildings, roads, diversion weir and field channel, spring-based water supply and field channels were constructed, they had never been executed,” said the vigilance official.

The former BDO even misappropriated government money to the tune of Rs 5 lakh from the gram panchayat fund under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.