The vigilance sleuths on Wednesday seized around ₹1.98 crore in cash from the house of an Odisha government officer.

The officer, identified as Santanu Kumar Mohapatra, was working as the deputy director and project director (PD) at Watershed in Malkangiri, a tribal-dominated district in southern Odisha.

The vigilance officials detained the officer for amassing huge properties. Besides the cash of ₹1.98 crore, the vigilance also seized 300 grams of gold jewellery from his residence.

Mohapatra will soon be arrested after the ongoing raid is over, said vigilance officials.

The vigilance sleuths carried out raids at seven places in Malkangiri, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. For the last three months, Mohapatra was under the surveillance of the vigilance unit.

The vigilance unit, in a release, said that it has so far unearthed properties, including one triple-storey palatial building with an area of 6000 square feet at Jeypore town in Koraput district, four high-value plots in Bhubaneswar and Jeypore town, and land at Hanspal in Bhubaneswar.

“Bank, insurance, other deposits and investments are being ascertained,” said the release.