CBI seizes Rs 15 cr during searches at retired Railway official's premises

The CBI seized 17 kilograms of gold and Rs 1.57 crore in cash during searches at the premises of a retired railway principal chief commercial manager in Bhubaneswar, officials said on Tuesday.

On January 3, the agency had booked Pramod Kumar Jena, a 1987-batch Indian Railway Traffic Service officer who retired in November last year, for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The officials said the Central Bureau of Investigation searched Jena's premises in Bhubaneswar.

Over Rs 1.57 crore, 17 kilograms of gold and jewellery (ranging between Rs 8 crore and Rs 10 crore), besides bank and postal deposit receipts of Rs 2.5 crore and a large number of property documents were found, they said.

Officials said Jena, who joined the service on March 6, 1989, and retired as PCCM in East Coast Railways, was booked under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets more than Rs 1.92 crore.

"His wife Rosina Jena is a housewife with no big source of income, but she regularly files lTR (Income tax returns). PK Jena had no other source of income except his own salary and rental income. The daughters of Jena are also filing lT returns," an official alleged, citing the FIR.

In locker after locker, the illicit wealth kept coming out, officials said, adding that the searches are still going on and some more lockers need to be opened up.

In its FIR, the agency alleged that at the start of the check period on April 1, 2005, Jena had assets worth Rs 4.53 lakh in the form of bank balances and plots, which spiralled to over Rs 4.33 crore at the end of the period on March 31, 2020, they said.

"Information disclosed that after giving the benefit of incomes as mentioned in their Income-Tax Returns, the total income of PK Jena and his family members from all known sources was to the tune of Rs 3.25 crore during the check period from April 1, 2005, to March 31, 2020," it alleged.

After calculating his income and expenses incurred during the corresponding period, the CBI alleged that there was no satisfactory explanation for Rs 1.92 crore of assets which it said were 59.09 per cent over his genuine sources of income.