Bhubaneswar, May 17 (IANS) The Odisha Vigilance on Sunday arrested two persons, including a junior engineer, while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.36 lakh from a contractor for clearing pending bills and processing the refund of security deposits for works under MMSY (Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana) during 2021–22 in the Khandapara area of Nayagarh district.

The accused persons were identified as Keshab Subudhi, a Junior Engineer, posted at the Bhapur Rural Works Section in Nayagarh district, and his associate Ashutosh Baliarsingh, a private person who was acting as Subudhi’s supervisor.

“On Sunday, Subudhi, along with his associate Baliarsingh, has been apprehended by Odisha Vigilance while taking bribe of Rs 1,36,000 from a contractor in lieu of clearing bills of the construction and maintenance work under MMSY (Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana) for the year 2021–22 in the Khandapara area of Nayagarh district and to refund the security deposit,” said a senior vigilance official.

As per the conditions of the Government, after completion of the maintenance period, the Initial Security Deposit (ISD), along with the security deposit, is returned to the Contractor. The government further mandated that the ISD and security deposit stand forfeited if the measurements are not taken for the maintenance works.

After completion of the maintenance work, the contractor had been repeatedly requesting the accused Junior Engineer, Subudhi, for the last three to four months to take measurements and facilitate the release of the security deposit amount in his favour.

However, the accused junior engineer demanded bribe of Rs 1.36 lakh from the complainant contractor to take measurements and clear pending bills. Aggrieved over the alleged demand for bribe, the contractor approached the Vigilance authorities and narrated the harassment faced by him.

Based on his complaint, the vigilance sleuths laid a trap on Sunday and caught the accused Subudhi, along with his associate Baliarsingh, red-handed in his official residential quarter at Khandapara for demanding and taking bribe of Rs 1,36,000 from the contractor.

The vigilance official informed that the junior engineer on Sunday called the contractor to his official quarters at Khandapara and asked him to hand over the bribe money to his supervisor, Baliarsingh, who was also present there. The entire bribe amount was recovered from them in the presence of witnesses.

Following the trap, simultaneous searches were carried out at Subudhi’s government quarters in Khandapara, the flat at Metro Apartment in Hanspal, Bhubaneswar, and his office. During the house search, 17 old Rs 2,000 notes were seized from his government quarters at Khandapara.

–IANS

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