Overview
- Vigilance teams carried out coordinated searches at nine locations linked to Baikuntha Nath Behera on Saturday and seized cash, properties, jewellery and documents for forensic review.
- Officials reported recovery of more than Rs 2 crore in cash from bank lockers, roughly 341 grams of gold, bank deposits exceeding Rs 45 lakh and multiple bank lockers that are being opened and counted.
- Investigators have identified five multi-storey residential buildings and 13–14 high-value plots across Bhubaneswar, Jajpur and Baripada that are registered to Behera or his family and are being measured and valued by the Vigilance technical wing.
- Behera has been arrested and a disproportionate-assets case registered under anti-corruption provisions, with investigators relying on bank reports, locker inventories and technical valuations to build the charge sheet.
- The case highlights the Vigilance department’s recent cross-district enforcement drive and will hinge on the outcome of forensic accounting, pending locker openings and bank verifications to establish any gap between declared income and detected assets.