COURT GIVES NOD TO SEIZE EXBIHAR BABUS ~30CR ASSETS

vigilance department is all set to confiscate assets worth ₹30 crore of a former Bihar weights and measures inspector after the Patna high court gave its nod for the same in a disproportionate assets case.

The court on Friday dismissed the now suspended inspector, Om Prakash Singh’s plea against a Muzaffarpur vigilance court order directing confiscation of the assets. The vigilance investigation bureau (VIB) will seize two buildings — one a six-storey building which houses 11 tenants in Lalji Tola area of the state capital — besides 40 other plots in and around Patna.

Singh, who has been waging a legal battle since the agency seized ₹20 lakh in cash and ₹7.43 lakh investments in bonds in 2009, started as a clerk in agriculture department in 1975. Fifteen years later, he was promoted as a weights and measures inspector, a post considered ‘lucrative’.

Vigilance officials say they are “simply stunned” by the wealth amassed by an “ordinary” state government employee. Vigilance court judge Kumar Prakash Sahay in January 2015 ordered confiscation of Singh’s property, originally valued at ₹1.19 crore.