The Chief Minister’s Vigilance Cell on Tuesday carried out a raid at the Guwahati residence of a Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) in connection with an alleged disproportionate assets case, bringing fresh focus on corruption probes within the state’s forest department.
Early morning, a vigilance team searched the residence of Kushal Kumar Deka, located at Mathgharia, a residential locality on the western fringe of Guwahati. The raid was conducted as part of a case registered under Vigilance Case No. 01/2026, sources confirmed.
Assets in Multiple Guwahati Localities Under Scanner
According to officials, the case relates to allegations that the officer is in possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Preliminary findings suggest that Deka owns land and properties in several parts of Guwahati, including Mathgharia and Panikhaiti, along with other locations in and around the city.
At present, Deka is posted at Aranya Bhawan in Panjabari, which houses key offices of the Assam forest department.
Career Trail Spans Multiple Districts
Officials said Deka’s service record spans several sensitive postings across Assam. Before his promotion to DFO, he served as a ranger in Silchar, Nagaon, South Kamrup, the Barak region, Boko, and the Basistha Forest Division office in Guwahati.
He was later promoted and posted as DFO in Sivasagar, where he served for around eight months, before being transferred back to Guwahati.
Highly placed sources indicated that a portion of the properties now under scrutiny were allegedly acquired during his tenure in the Barak region, prompting vigilance authorities to widen the scope of the investigation.
Guwahati in Focus Again
The raid adds to a growing list of vigilance actions carried out in Guwahati in recent months, as the city increasingly becomes the focal point of high-profile corruption and disproportionate asset investigations involving senior officials.
Officials said searches and verification of documents are still underway, and more details are expected once the operation is completed and the seized materials are examined.
The Vigilance Cell has not yet made any formal arrests, and further action will depend on the outcome of the ongoing probe.