Odisha Vigilance arrests Junior Engineer in massive disproportionate assets case

Bhubaneswar, May 24: Odisha Vigilance on Saturday arrested Susanta Kumar Sethy, a Junior Engineer (JE) in the Roads and Buildings (R&B) Division at Khariar, on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

According to an official Vigilance release, Sethy is accused of concealing suspected ill-gotten cash amounting to ₹55 lakh and 1.4 kilograms of gold by stashing them at his tenant’s residence in an attempt to evade detection. These items are currently under verification.

The arrest followed extensive raids conducted on Friday across eight locations linked to Sethy. During the searches, anti-corruption officials uncovered three multi-storey buildings, a farmhouse, nine high-value land plots, two luxury four-wheelers (including one suspected benami vehicle), ₹55 lakh in bank deposits, and household articles valued at over ₹14 lakh—all of which he failed to account for satisfactorily.

Further developments revealed that Sethy's wife had lodged a police complaint at Dhouli Police Station on April 13, 2024, alleging the tenant misappropriated the cash and gold.

Sethy began his government career in 2004 as a contractual JE, was regularised in 2011, and has since served in various divisions, including Rayagada, Angul, and Khariar. He has been posted in Nuapada since September 2023.