Nayagarh: The Odisha Vigilance sleuths on Sunday apprehended a junior engineer (JE) of Bhapur Rural Works Section in Nayagarh district and his associate while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.36 lakh.
According to Vigilance sources, the JE, Keshab Subudhi, had demanded the illegal gratification from a a contractor for clearing pending bills related to construction and maintenance works under Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana (MMSY) for 2021-22 in Khandapara area, and for facilitating the refund of the contractor’s security deposit.
The release further stated that government rules stipulate that after the completion of the maintenance period, the Initial Security Deposit (ISD) and security deposit are to be returned to the contractor. However, these deposits can be forfeited if measurements for the maintenance works are not properly taken. The contractor had reportedly been requesting Subudhi for the past three to four months to complete the measurements and release his security money, but the engineer allegedly demanded Rs 1.36 lakh as a bribe to process the files. Frustrated by the repeated demands and harassment, the contractor approached the Odisha Vigilance authorities and accordingly a trap was laid.
Subudhi called the contractor to his official quarters in Khandapara and instructed him to hand over the bribe amount to his associate, Ashutosh Baliarsingh, who was present at the location acting as a supervisor. A Vigilance team immediately swung into action and caught both individuals red-handed while accepting the bribe. The entire tainted amount of Rs 1.36 lakh was recovered from them and seized as evidence.
Following the trap, simultaneous searches are underway at two locations linked to Subudhi to probe his disproportionate assets. A case has been registered at Bhubaneswar Vigilance police station under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 and further investigation is underway.
