Over Rs 2 cr in cash, assets 'disproportionate' to Odisha govt engineer's income recovered
Bhubaneswar(PTI): Vigilance sleuths in Odisha on Friday recovered over Rs 2 crore in cash and valuable assets from the possession of a government engineer, which are suspected to be disproportionate to his income, officials said.
The search operation at the residences and the office of the engineer is underway, they said.
"The anti-corruption wing of the Odisha Police raided the residences and the office of Baikuntha Nath Sarangi, Chief Engineer, Plan Roads, RW Division, Odisha, Bhubaneswar," a statement said.
Around Rs 1 crore in cash was recovered from his Bhubaneswar flat, and Rs 1.1 crore was found at Sarangi’s residence at Angul, one of the officials said.
“On seeing the vigilance officers, Sarangi threw bundles of cash in Rs 500 denomination through the window of his flat in Bhubaneswar. The cash was recovered in the presence of witnesses," another official said.
He was accused of possessing assets disproportionate to his income.
Simultaneous raids are being conducted as search warrants were issued by Special Judge, Vigilance, Angul.
The vigilance team located a two-storeyed residential house at Karadagadia, Angul, and flats in Bhubaneswar and at Siula, Pipili in Puri district, an official said.
Sarangi’s ancestral house and relatives' homes in Angul district were also searched. His office chamber, located at the Chief Engineer, RD Planning and Road, Bhubaneswar, is also being raided.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
