The Barbil police arrested and court-forwarded one Jagabndhu Patra, working as a driver in the local ARTO office on the charge of acting as a broker in the Barbil ARTO office on Monday last.
There were allegations against the ARTO ,Barbil office that the corrupt officials were minting money through agents roaming in the office. However, after the announcement of 5-Ts by the CM to bring a transparency in the system, the Barbil police had swung into action and arrested two agents, identified as Arun Kumar Sahu and Shashi Bhusan Mishra, under various sections of IPC on September 27, but the arrest had no impact on the corrupt officials who went on amassing their wealth as usual.
After further investigation and interrogation of the two accused under custody, the police came to know that corrupt officials were resorting to irregularities through Jagabandhu Patra who was working as a driver of the vehicle used by Junior MVI( Motor Vehicle Inspector) of ARTO office Rajesh Mahapatra.
The police seized two DL( driving licences), one LL( learning licence) and one mobile and other documents from Patra.
Barbil IIC Sushanta Kishore Dash who is inquiring in to the matter revealed that after examining the documents and further probe, the police would be able to reach at the other culprits involved in this episode.
Notably, on June 10, The Pioneer had covered a story under caption ‘ Private bus ply sans permit in Keonjhar’ to highlight rampant corruption in ARTO Barbil office.
After the news published ,there was much uproar in the locality.
Notably, daily more than 16,000 trucks ply in the Joda- Barbil mining area and hence, the corrupt officials are having a field day here.