Bhubaneswar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday reportedly seized Rs 50 lakh from the house of mines owner Jitendra Nath Patnaik (Jitu Patnaik).
According to sources, the ED officials, apart from seizing the cash, also seized hard disks from Patnaik’s houses in Bhubaneswar and Joda. Bank passbooks, documents of fixed deposit and insurances were also seized by the officials.
The ED officials conducted simultaneous raids at four places linked to Patnaik. They conducted raids at two places of Patnaik in Bhubaneswar and two places in Joda of Keonjhar district; this includes his house which is situated near the Sai Temple at Joda and his office at Baneikala Chawak and another house in the Surya Nagar area of the State Capital City.
The raids were conducted in connection with the money laundering case against the mines owner.
It is pertinent to mention here that Jitu Patnaik has several mines block in the Joda area. However, he had allegedly carried out mining illegally from 1999 to 2009 due to which the Odisha government had to bear a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 130 crore.
Later, taking a serious note of the loss of revenue, the State Vigilance filed a case of money laundering against him in 2009 and submitted the charge sheet in 2013. Now, the Enforcement Directorate is conducting raids.
Kalinga AI