Bhubaneswar, March 28 The Odisha Vigilance department on Thursday arrested an official in Puri after he was caught red-handed while taking bribes from a vehicle owner to release his detained vehicle.
The accused Commercial Tax Officer (CTO), Manas Ranjan Behera, is posted to the CT & GST Enforcement Unit, Puri.
As per provisions of the government, the complainant had already paid the GST penalty amount of Rs 79,200 on March 19. Yet, Behera did not release his detained vehicle, and demanded a bribe of Rs 30,000.
"Finding no other way, the complainant lodged a complaint with the vigilance. A trap was laid on Thursday to catch the accused. Accordingly, Behera was caught by a team of Odisha Vigilance in front of Zilla School, Puri while receiving undue advantage of Rs 30,000 from the complainant," a Vigilance department source said.
The Vigilance sleuths later launched simultaneous searches on the parental house of Behera at Angapada in Angul district, his rental accommodation and his office room in Puri town.
The accused would be presented before the court on Friday.
In another incident, the anti-corruption sleuths apprehended another government official for demanding bribe from a person in Nuapada district on Thursday.
"The accused, Narendra Kumar Chandrakar, posted at the revenue section in Collectorate office of Nuapada district was arrested for accepting of bribe of Rs 30,000 as first instalment out of an overall demand of Rs 46,000 from a complainant for processing Settlement Revision File of his spouse and for the issuance of RoR (Land Patta) in her favour," said a Vigilance official.
Similarly, one Ganesh Mallick, working as the revenue supervisor at the Special Land Acquisition Office, Paradeep and his aide Khirod Rath were arrested on Thursday by the Vigilance officials for receiving a bribe of 4,000 from a complainant to process his file for the payment of land acquisition payment.
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