Odisha Government today took departmental action and suspended Athagarh Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sudhanshu Mishra for not being able to explain his vast assets, said Forest and Environment Department Principal Secretary Suresh Mohapatra. Besides, he was allegedly not cooperating with the investigating officials.
Mishra, on the other hand, claimed that the seized money belonged to his father-in-law who made that money from land sales. Vigilance plans to get him on another three day remand for further investigation, said Vigilance Director RP Mishra. Notably, vigilance had raided various houses and apartments of Mishra in Bhubaneswar, Bolangir, Cuttack, Bhawanipatna, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Sonepur and Puri and had detected property worth Rs 6 crore on February 24.
He was subsequently arrested on February 25 and taken on a three day remand the next day for questioning. Mishra joined Odisha Forest Service in 1987 as a Class-II officer as Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF). Later, he was promoted to Class-I rank in May, 2007 and posted at different places as the DFO. He was posted as DFO in Angul and Berhampur before he was given posting at Athagarh four months ago.