Assistant Record Keeper Hadibandhu Behera in Vigilance Snare

Keonjhar: Hadibandhu Behera, the Assistant Record Keeper (ARK) of the office of the Settlement Officer in Keonjhar was apprehended by Odisha Vigilance while demanding and taking bribe.

Behera was caught red-handed while taking a bribe of Rs 3,000 from a complainant in order to provide him the certified copy of documents related to khatian and amin report in respect of their disputed ancestral land for which he had applied on July 4, 2025.

The complainant, a poor farmer, had been requesting accused Behera to provide the above documents. But, he was demanding a bribe of Rs 3,000 to provide the documents, and refused to furnish the same unless he was paid the demanded bribe.

Left with no other option, the complainant approached the Vigilance authorities narrating his harassment. Following this, Vigilance Officers laid a trap and nabbed accused Behera today while taking the bribe in his office at Keonjhar. The entire bribe amount has been recovered from the possession of accused Assistant Record Keeper and seized.

Following the trap, simultaneous searches are going on at two locations linked to Behera from Disproportionate Assets (DA) angle. In this connection, Balasore Vigilance P.S. case No.08/2025, U/s 7PC (Amendment) Act, 2018 has been registered against Behera.

Further investigation is in progress. Detailed report follows.

Earlier in the day, the Odisha Vigilance also launched Disproportionate Asset (DA) searches at 7 locations linked with Debasis Panda, the Principal Scientific officer at the State Drugs Testing Laboratory in Sambalpur. The raids were carried out in three different districts – Khurda (Bhubaneswar), Sambalpur and Ganjam (Berhampur).