Odisha Vigilance arrests cop over corruption charges

Bhubaneswar, May 22 (IANS) The Odisha Vigilance Department, on Thursday, arrested one police official in Cuttack district for accepting bribe to facilitate the settlement of a dispute between the complainant and a fellow villager under Tigiria police station area.

The accused police officer, identified as Pradeep Kumar Behera, was posted at the Tigiria police station in Cuttack as an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), caught red handed.

"Counter FIRs were submitted on the dispute by both the opposing parties, following which the dispute was ended in compromise. However, after the compromise, the accused ASI was demanding a bribe from the complainant to not take any action against him on the counter FIR filed against the complainant. Finding no other means, the complainant approached before Vigilance authorities," said a senior Vigilance official.

On Thursday, the Vigilance Department laid a trap and caught Behera red handed while receiving the bribe amount from the complainant.

Following the trap, simultaneous searches have been launched on the official residential quarter of Behera at Dhenkanal Town police station house at his native village of Nutanapatana Sahi in Dhenkanal and the quarter at Tigiria police station.

In another significant case, the Vigilance sleuths on Thursday arrested four government officials for misappropriating government funds to the tune of Rs 20 lakh under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rayagada district.

The accused officials, Rajendra Nath Naik, Assistant Project Director-cum-Project Implementing Agency (APD-cum-PIA) (Class-1); Jogendra Khosla, Soil Conservation Overseer; Deepak Kumar Sahoo, Soil Conservation Overseer; and Srikumar Nayak, Soil Conservation Extension Worker, are posted at the office of Watershed Project Director in Rayagada district.

The accused persons in collusion embezzled Rs 20 lakh without excavation of 23 number of farm ponds under MGNREG Scheme in different villages of Kashipur block in Rayagada district.

The policemen arrested the accused persons after registering a case under various sections of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act.

--IANS

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