IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak under the Odisha vigilance scanner

Bhubaneswar: Wealth of Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Abhay Kant Pathak, is under the Odisha vigilance scanner for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets. The raid of his properties began on Wednesday.

"During our raids in Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Pune, Rajasthan and Bihar since Wednesday, we have so far seized about Rs 60 lakh," said a vigilance officer.

Costly household articles were also confiscated with gold ornaments weighing 800 grams. Further, documents of gold purchase worth Rs 23 lakh was found on Wednesday.

Simultaneous raids were carried out in Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Pune, Bihar and Rajasthan to unearth alleged disproportionate assets owned by Pathak, a 1987 batch IFS officer, who is currently posted as additional principal chief conservator of forests (plan, programme & afforestation) in the state.

This was one of the biggest raid carried out by the state vigilance team.

The anti-corruption wing has discovered cash deposits of about Rs 9.4 crore in Pathak's son's bank account. Of the Rs, 9.4 crores about Rs 8.4 crore was deposited through ATMs at Saheed Nagar and Nayapalli in Bhubaneswar.

The vigilance team also reported that Rs 1 crore was paid towards rent of some luxury flats and a farmhouse in Pune.

Pathak and his family are said to have splurged on foreign travels as well.

"Foreign tours to Malaysia, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and the Maldives have been ascertained. Chartered flight bills worth nearly Rs 3 crores, involving travel from and to cities like Pune, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Mumbai, Jamshedpur and Delhi have also been determined," added the vigilance officer.

Vigilance team discovered posh vehicles like Mercedes, BMW and Tata Harrier and three costly Yamaha FZS motorcycles registered in his son's name.

Pathak's son, Akash Pathak is booked by the Crime Branch for allegedly impersonating the Managing Director (MD) of an automobile company and cheated job aspirants with lakhs of rupees.

In the last three years, there have been at least three cases of forest officials getting caught over disproportionate assets. In 2016, divisional forest officer of Athagarh, Sudhansu Mishra was arrested for disproportionate assets worth Rs 5.5 crore including cash amounting to Rs 93 lakh.

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