From forest guard to crorepati forester: Vigilance raid exposes disproportionate assets

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance on Friday unearthed two triple-storey building and seven plots during raids on Forester of Koraput Forest Division, Niranjan Satapathy, for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Gold weighing around 1 kg and Rs 8.7 lakh were also seized by the Vigilance teams led by 6 DSPs, 7 inspectors, and other supporting staff during simultaneous searches at five places in Bhubaneswar and Jagatsinghpur and Koraput districts, including his government quarter and office room at Semiluguda.

Assets detected are as follows:

1. Two triple-storey building
2. One building over 1250 sqft area at Semiliguda
3. Seven high-value plots – two in prime location of Bhubaneswar, four in Jagatsinghpur town and one at Semiliguda
4. Gold weighing around 1 kg
5. Rs 8,70,000 along with some foreign currencies
6. A four-wheeler (TATA Harrier) and 3 two-wheelers.

The measurement and valuation/assessment of the buildings/plots are being carried out by Vigilance Technical Wing. Bank, Postal deposits and other investments are also being ascertained, a Vigilance release said.

Satapathy had started his service on January 25, 1988 as a forest guard under Koraput Forest Division with an initial monthly salary of Rs 625.