Bihar govt officer booked for possession of 'disproportionate' assets worth over Rs 8cr

Patna/Motihari, Dec 12 (PTI) The Vigilance Investigation Bureau of the Bihar government has registered a case against a block-level officer for allegedly amassing assets worth over Rs 8 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income, an official said on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of vigilance personnel conducted search operations at two residences of the officer in Patna and Motihari and recovered Rs 1.75 crore in cash, 2.2 kgs of gold and silver ornaments valued at Rs 48 lakh, 42 passbooks of nationalised banks and post office, he said.

At least 14 LIC policies, 17 debit and credit cards and 25 land purchase agreement papers were also seized during the raids, the vigilance official said.

"It is suspected that the block-level officer of Hajipur of the labour department amassed total disproportionate assets worth more than Rs 8 crore. A case has been registered against him," he said.

The vigilance sleuths are scrutinising documents related to his movable and immovable properties recovered during the searches.

The raids were carried out after a search warrant was issued by the special judge, vigilance, Patna, the official said, adding that it was one of the biggest seizures in disproportionate asset cases in the state in the last two years.

The vigilance department had seized properties worth Rs 2.36 crore from the house of an executive engineer of the road construction department in 2019. PTI CORR PKD BDC BDC