Odisha: Vigilance arrests two engineers in bribery case

Bhubaneswar, Jan 5 (IANS) In a big catch, the Odisha Vigilance on Monday laid a trap and nabbed two engineers for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 60,000 from a contractor in Mayurbhanj district of the state.

The accused engineers identified as Harekrushna Singh, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) and Subrat Mohanty, Junior Engineer (JE), Udala, are working in the Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation Ltd., Udala Sub-Division of Mayurbhanj district.

The vigilance sources revealed that the duo were apprehended for taking part instalment bribe of Rs 60,000 (Rs 32,000/- share of AEE and Rs 28,000 of JE) from a Contractor for the release of pending bills of work executed by the Contractor.

“The contractor had completed projects worth Rs 25 lakh; however, the accused AEE Singh and JE Mohanty had withheld bills of about Rs 5 lakh and had also not released the security deposit, demanding Rs 1.10 lakh bribe @ 4.5% (1.5 per cent of AEE and 3 per cent of JE). Faced with such harassment, the contractor approached Vigilance authorities,” said a vigilance official.

Acting on the complaint, the anti-corruption sleuths laid a trap on Monday and arrested the accused Singh, AEE and Mohanty, JE were at OLIC Ltd., Division office, Baripada, while receiving the bribe money of Rs 60,000 from the complainant Contractor. The entire bribe money was recovered and seized from both the accused persons in the presence of witnesses.

Following the trap, simultaneous searches have been conducted on the residential house of Singh at Khunta in Balasore and his office chamber, the residential house of Mohanty at Baripada, the paternal house at Rairangpur and his office room. The cops during the searches found Rs 1.80 lakhs in the house of Singh.

A senior Inspector of Odisha police was arrested by the vigilance officials over corruption charges after he was caught red-handed while receiving a bribe from a licensed liquor vendor to allow his business to run smoothly.

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