Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance on Sunday arrested a junior engineer and his associate for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.36 lakh from a contractor in Nayagarh district.
The accused have been identified as Keshab Subudhi and his associate Ashutosh Baliarsingh. According to Vigilance officials, the duo was caught while allegedly demanding and accepting the bribe for clearing pending bills and facilitating the refund of security deposits linked to road construction and maintenance work carried out under the Mukhyamantri Sadak Yojana during 2021-22 in the Khandapara area of Nayagarh.
Officials said contractors are entitled to receive the Initial Security Deposit and the security deposit after completion of the maintenance period and related measurements. The deposits can be forfeited if measurements are not conducted within the stipulated process.
As per the Vigilance investigation, the contractor had repeatedly approached the junior engineer over the past several months to complete the measurement process and release the pending security amount. However, the engineer allegedly demanded Rs 1.36 lakh in exchange for processing the matter.
After receiving the complaint, Odisha Vigilance laid a trap on Sunday. Investigators said the contractor was called to the government residential quarters of the junior engineer at Khandapara, where he was allegedly instructed to hand over the bribe money to Baliarsingh, who was present there.
The Vigilance team then apprehended both accused persons and recovered the entire bribe amount in the presence of witnesses. During subsequent searches at multiple locations, including the government quarters at Khandapara, a flat at Metro Apartment in Hanspal, Bhubaneswar, and the office room of the engineer, officials also seized 17 old Rs 2,000 currency notes.
Both accused have been arrested and are set to be produced before the court.
