Bribe cuffs on junior engr, 5th such arrest in 2 days

Bhubaneswar: The vigilance directorate on Tuesday arrested a junior engineer (JE) while allegedly accepting Rs 50,000 bribe from a contractor, making him the fifth government staff apprehended across the state in the past two days for accepting bribe.
The engineer, Ramakanta Behera, sought bribe from the contractor to facilitate quick release of his pending bills ahead of the festive season. “As Behera refused to clear the arrears without taking bribe, the contractor lodged a complaint with us a few days back,” a senior vigilance official said.
The anti-corruption sleuths verified the allegations and laid a trap to arrest Behera. The engineer was arrested while accepting cash from the complainant in his office chamber.
Behera’s rented house at Plot No-212, Soubhagya Nagar in Khandagiri and his native village at Phulbani and his office in Bhubaneswar block were raided to find out disproportionate assets, if any. Vigilance said they often receive complaints related to public servants, including police personnel, demanding financial favours from people in the run-up to Dussehra and Diwali.
In another operation on Tuesday, the vigilance arrested Satyanarayan Dolei, a senior clerk in the office of Boipariguda tehsildar in Koraput, on charges of accepting Rs 5,000 bribe from a man to give him land patta. In the third operation, C Chandraiah, a gram rojgar sevak of Rangeilunda block in Ganjam, was arrested with Rs 27,000 bribe that he took from a labour contractor.
On Monday, Binod Kumar Naik, the BDO of Gudvela in Balangir district was arrested while accepting bribe of Rs 1.8 lakh from a contractor to clear his bills. Bansidhar Parida, an assistant engineer in Ganjam was arrested for allegedly taking Rs 4,000 from a contractor.