Vigilance officers on Friday arrested Mayurbhanj district’s Karanjia Soil Conservation Extension Worker Sumanta Kumar Padhi for demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 35,000 from Sahadev Das, an Udyan Sathi, for processing his wage bill for transportation of fertilizer.
Das had executed mango plantation and green fencing work at Pingua village under Karanjia Block. He requested Padhi to process his wage bill for four months from January to April 2017 for transportation charges of fertilizer. But Padhi demanded Rs 35,000 for this purpose.
Acting on Das’ complaint, Vigilance officers laid a trap and caught Padhi red-handed while taking bribe of Rs 35,000 from the complainant near his office. t. Sri Das. The tainted bribe money of Rs 35,000/- has been recovered from his possession and seized in presence of witnesses. His hand and Pant Pocket wash gave positively chemical reaction confirming acceptance of bribe.
His rented residential house at Rajabandha Sahi, Karnjia and residential house at Madhuban HUDCO Colony, Baripada Town were under search, said an official release.
In another incident, Samballur district’s Katarduha Forester Narayan Chandra Pani was caught red-handed while demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 4,000 from Jagannath Mirdha of Jhunadihi village under Katarbag police station with an assurance not to file any case against him for collecting fencing materials.
Mirdha had collected some green fencing material. Pani had threatened him to book a forest offence case against him. While Mirdha requested him not to do so, Pani demanded Rs 4,000 as bribe.
Acting on his complaint, Vigilance officers laid a trap and caught him red-handed while taking the demanded bribe amount from Mirdha.
His native village at Badasahir under Sambalpur Sadar police station was under search.