Odisha government engineer arrested by vigilance for bribery

Following the raid, the Vigilance conducted search at the residence of the accused at village Remuna in the state.

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance sleuths have arrested a deputy executive engineer for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a contractor in the State’s Angul district, officials said.

The accused has been identified as Sarat Kumar Pradhan, Deputy Executive Engineer, Lift Irrigation, Angul.

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According to officials the bribe money was allegedly taken from a contractor to release the withheld amount of two projects.

The entire bribe money has been seized from his possession, the Vigilance officials informed on Friday.

Based on a complaint, a trap was laid on August 11 and the accused Sarat was found demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from the complainant at his office room and subsequently caught by the team of an Odisha Vigilance, officials said.

“The right-hand wash of the accused was taken in sodium carbonate solution, which gave positive chemical reaction confirming acceptance of bribe money,” the official said.

Following the raid, the Vigilance conducted search at the residence of the accused at village Remuna in the state.

“The accused has been arrested and a case under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Amendment Act, 2018 has been registered against the accused at the Cuttack Vigilance police station,’ officials said.

“Further investigation into the matter is on,” they said.