Bhubaneswar: Baikuntha Nath Sarangi was to retire on Saturday, after 34 years in govt service. On Friday, he was allegedly caught on camera tossing bundles of cash onto his neighbour’s terrace during a vigilance raid at his apartment in Dumduma area of the city. Sarangi (60), currently posted as chief engineer (road plans) in the rural development department, has been detained for questioning.Vigilance officials retrieved around Rs 50 lakh from the neighbour’s roof. Further searches at his flat and another property in Angul district led to the recovery of Rs 2.51 crore in cash. “We recovered Rs 1.30 crore from his property in Angul and Rs 1.21 crore from his Bhubaneswar flat (including cash from his neighbour’s roof). We also found that he had invested Rs 2.7 crore in the share market and Rs 1.5 crore in insurance/bank deposits,” director (vigilance) Yeshwant Jethwa said.Investigation revealed two multi-storeyed buildings in Angul, two flats in Bhubaneswar and Pipili respectively, and seven valuable plots in Angul and Pipili allegedly registered in the names of Sarangi and his family members. During searches, vigilance also found gold ornaments weighing around 1kg. Vigilance sources said the total value of movable and immovable assets is likely to exceed Rs 13 crore of which Rs 7 crore alone is in cash, bank deposits, insurance and share market investments.According to vigilance sleuths, they visited Sarangi’s apartment on Friday morning with a court-authorised search warrant. The moment he saw them, Sarangi closed the door and then started throwing cash onto his neighbour’s roof. The anti-corruption team had anticipated such a behaviour and had positioned officers around the property. “Our team had conducted thorough preliminary surveillance and was prepared for any attempted disposal of evidence. The entire incident was captured on video as evidence for prosecution,” Jethwa said. Bundles of cash in Rs 500 denomination were recovered from his neighbour’s roof.Sarangi started as an engineer in the panchayati raj department on a monthly stipend of Rs 2,000 in Sept 1991. In Feb this year, he was promoted to chief engineer.Sarangi’s case has similarities with that of Prasanta Kumar Rout, former additional sub-collector, Nabarangpur, who tried to dump Rs 2.25 crore cash concealed in six cartons on to his neighbour’s terrace in Bhubaneswar in June 2023. But like him, Sarangi also could not manage to conceal the act.Jethwa said the recovered money could be proceeds of corruption during his tenure as chief engineer. The anti-corruption department plans to investigate projects and files approved by him to determine if his decisions had resulted in unlawful financial gains.