The anti-corruption vigilance wing of Odisha police on Monday made a seizure of around Rs one crore worth gold during a raid on the house of Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy, officials said.
The gold ornaments weighing 1440 grams of gold and a designer necklace worth Rs 24.25 lakh were detected from his house and the yellow metals were seized as the MLA failed to explain the source from which the ornaments were purchased. The cumulative market cost of the seized ornaments is valued at around Rs one crore, they said.
“During the course of searches, 1440 gm gold and a Sabyasachi brand designer necklace worth Rs 24.25 lakh were found in the house of Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy and seized. Steps are being taken for their attachment”, a statement by the vigilance department said.
Steps are also being taken for freezing of bank accounts of Panigrahy and his family members. The documents found during the searches will be examined by the officers of Financial Wing of Vigilance and Professional CA and Banking Consultants, it stated.
Cyber Cell of Vigilance will examine all electronic evidences/ documents found during the searches. Examination of witnesses, suspects and accused shall be carried out in due course of time. Further investigation was underway, the statement added.
It may be noted here that the vigilance wing of police on Sunday had conducted search operations at 15 places in connection with its probe into a disproportionate asset case against Panigrahy.
The legislator was allegedly found in possession of assets worth Rs 5.05 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income. A complaint was filed before the Lokayukta, Odisha in December last year after completion of a secret verification on the allegation of possession of disproportionate assets by the MLA.
Panigrahy, once the blue-eyed boy of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, was earlier arrested by the vigilance wing in a case of cheating people with fake promises of jobs.
The 56-year-old legislator was in jail for about seven months and released on bail in June this year. Panigrahy was expelled from the ruling BJD on charges of ‘anti-people’ activities in November last year.