Cyclone Phailin: Vigilance sleuths collect evidence on relief loot case

Cuttack: Vigilance sleuths today collected several documentary and other evidence after raiding houses of several corporators and the office of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) regarding loot of relief materials. [caption id=“attachment_1187745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] At least 30 teams of the anti-corruption wing of the police simultaneously searched the houses of 29 CMC corporators, including that of 21 ruling BJD corporators, while another team raided the CMC office and the residences of its former commissioner N R Mohapatra and deputy commissioner Jaganarayan Kujur. For their dubious role in misappropriating of relief materials, Mohapatra was removed from his post while Kujur was placed under suspension on Monday. Likewise, a senior BJD corporator and former deputy mayor of the city Madhusudan Sahu was also suspended from the party by the BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Vigilance sources said that both Mohapatra and Kujur are being examined in detail regarding the distribution of relief material and the discrepancies thereof and said further quizzing of the tainted officials would be made as the enquiry is still on. Earlier in the day, the search parties had obtained search warrants in the names of the corporators and officials from the relevant courts. So far the vigilance enquiry has revealed that at least 27,000 people of Cuttack city were evacuated on October 12 from low-lying areas to safer places in view of the severe cyclone and they were sheltered at 72 shelter houses. PTI