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In one of the most beautiful anti-corruption operations, Odisha Vigilance on February 24, 2026, arrested Debabrata Mohanty, Deputy Director of Mines, Cuttack Circle, when he was allegedly taking a bribe of 30,000 in the form of 30,000 rupees, as demanded by a licensed coal trader. The complaint itself was the prerequisite to laying the trap when the complainant stated that Mohanty had asked him to pay and free the transportation in exchange for not allowing his coal depot to function easily and for getting the permission to transport goods.

After the arrest, a raid was also carried out at the Mohanty Bhubaneswar flat, the ancestral house in the Bhadrak district, and the office room in Cuttack. The highest ever cash seizure in Odisha Vigilance history was discovered: over Rs 4 crore (according to some reports it was 4.27 crore) in unaccounted cash, stashed in trolley bags, almirahs, and other shrouded locations in his Bhubaneswar home.

On top of that, researchers found some 130 grams of gold jewelry and 120,000 rupees in his office desk and personal effects and records to several bank accounts and mutual funds and located in Pahala, Bhubaneswar, a palatial two-story residence (some 2,400 sq ft) in an area of approximately 2,400 square feet. Mohanty started earning a salary of a modest Rs 8,000 per month in 2004 and today is being scrutinized on the issue of disproportionate assets.

The case has been filed in the provisions that address the prevention of corruption act. Vigilance director Yeshwant Jethwa called it a landmark operation that brought out the endemic corruption in the mining industry. The huge recovery underscores the continuous struggle to contain graft in the Odisha departments, which are rich in resources and where licensing and transport authorizations often come with bribery requests. With the counting and verifying process going on, there are calls to tighten asset monitoring on the public servants.