Odisha Vigilance Arrests Three Officials, Including OAS Officer, in Bribery and Corruption Cases

Bhubaneswar: In a major crackdown on corruption, Odisha Vigilance on Friday arrested three government officials — including an OAS officer — in separate operations across Sambalpur, Nayagarh, and Mayurbhanj district

The arrested officials have been identified as:

• Ashwini Kumar Panda, OAS, Tahasildar of Bamra (Sambalpur) — caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of ₹15,000 for conversion of agricultural land to homestead land in a mutation case. The bribe was allegedly collected through his driver, P. Praveen Kumar, who has also been arrested. Vigilance officials seized the full bribe amount.
• Chittaranjan Rout, District Labour Officer, Nayagarh — arrested while allegedly demanding and receiving a bribe of ₹6,000 from a labourer for issuing labour cards to him and 19 others. Reports said the cards were pending for nearly a year due to the bribe demand.
• Puspita Mahakud, former Panchayat Executive Officer of Luhasila GP under Bijatola block, Mayurbhanj — arrested for the alleged embezzlement of ₹5.68 lakh meant for Old Age Pension beneficiaries. She is presently posted at the Sub-Collector’s office in Rairangpur.

Simultaneous searches are being conducted at multiple locations linked to Panda and Rout to detect disproportionate assets.

Vigilance cases have been registered against Panda and Rout under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.