Suspended Odisha IAS Officer’s Bail Plea Rejected

Bhubaneswar: A Special Court on Monday rejected the bail application of suspended IAS officer Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya and extended his judicial custody by 14 days.

Upadhyaya, who was arrested in a bribery case, was produced before the court.

The Vigilance had earlier taken him on six-day remand which had ended on January 5. It had traced Rs.70 lakh cash deposits in three banks while investigating the bribery charges against him. The cash deposits were made both in counter and through cash accepting machines between 2012 and 2019, a release had said.

“There has been a trend of multiple cash deposits in split up amounts on a single day and on successive days. Of total cash deposits of Rs.70 lakhs, cash deposits of around Rs. 22 lakhs relate to Dr. Upadhyaya’s tenure as Director of Horticulture,” it said.

The anti-corruption officials had arrested the 2009-batch IAS officer on December 30 for allegedly demanding bribe from an empanelled sprinkler irrigations systems supplier for passing a bill of Rs 50 lakh. The relationship manager of YES Bank, Santosh Kumar Pattanayak, was also apprehended for allegedly accepting the Rs 1 lakh bribe on behalf of Upadhyaya.

The former Director of Horticulture was suspended by the Odisha Government following his arrest.