The Odisha vigilance officials have seized Rs 3.02 crore from the house of an Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) officer.

The OAS officer, identified as Prasanta Kumar Rout, is currently working as an additional sub-collector in Nabarangpur of southern Odisha. The value of properties both movable and immovable would cross six crore rupees once the investigation is completed, vigilance sources said.

Superintendent of police (vigilance) M. Radhakrishna said: “Our officials have seized Rs 500 notes worth over Rs 2.03 crore stashed in six cartons and another Rs 10,37,000 concealed behind a bookshelf during raids on his residence at Kanan Vihar in Bhubaneswar. Also Rs 76.44 lakh and Rs 12.88 lakh were recovered from two places at his official residence in Nabarangpur. Nine teams of Odisha vigilance are conducting simultaneous raids at nine places on Friday in Nabarangpur, Bhubaneswar and Bhadrak on the strength of a search warrant issued by the special judge of Sundargarh vigilance court. Once the investigation is over, we will be able to tell the number of properties accumulated by the additional sub-collector.”

The vigilance in a media release said: “Rout seems to have made regular cash deposits in a number of benami bank accounts. Details of one such account — opened in the name of an acquaintance in Induslnd Bank, Bhubaneswar — has been collected where Rs 26.27 lakh cash deposits have been made by Rout since 2019.”