The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday seized alleged ill-gotten assets of a retired Railway official, Pramod Kumar Jena, during searches conducted at various places as part of its investigation into a disproportionate assets (DA) case.
The central probe agency, in a statement, said they found Rs 1.57 crore in cash, postal saving/bank fixed deposits of nearly Rs 3.33 crore, bank balance of approximately Rs 1.51 crore and documents for mutual fund investment of around Rs 47.75 lakh during the search.
The CBI also found gold bars, gold biscuits and coins, gold jewellery of around 17 kg valued around Rs 9.5 crore and documents related to immovable properties from the bank lockers and premises of the retired railway official and his family members and relatives, said the statement.
According to the agency, the retired IRTS officer had had no other source of income than his salary and rental income.
Jena, a 1987-batch Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer, had joined the service in March 1989 and retired as principal chief commercial manager under the East Coast Railway with headquarters in Bhubaneswar on November 30, 2022.
“The CBI had registered a case on January 3 against Jena on the allegations of possessing disproportionate assets worth around Rs 1.92 crore during the check period of April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2020,” said a CBI official.
Accordingly, the central probe agency conducted searches at various places, including Bhubaneswar, Jagatsinghpur and Kolkata. During the searches, the CBI found eight keys of bank lockers, including three in his wife’s name.
CBI sources said seven lockers have been opened so far. The CBI officials are also questioning the retired IRTS official and his relatives as part of the investigation.
The CBI said Jena’s wife Rosina, despite being a housewife having no big source of income, is regularly filing income tax returns. The two daughters of Jena are also filing l-T returns.
