Odisha Vigilance Arrests Two Engineers for Taking Rs 60,000 Bribe in Mayurbhanj

Bhubaneswar: The State Vigilance Department on Monday arrested an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) and a Junior Engineer (JE) of the Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation’s Udala Sub-Division in Mayurbhanj district for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 60,000 from a contractor.

According to officials, the contractor had completed irrigation projects worth around Rs 25 lakh. However, the accused engineers—AEE Harekrushna Sing and JE Subrat Mohanty—allegedly withheld bill payments amounting to about Rs 5 lakh and demanded a bribe at the rate of 4.5 per cent to clear the dues.

Acting on a complaint, vigilance officials laid a trap and caught both engineers red-handed while they were accepting the bribe money. The entire amount of Rs 60,000 was recovered and seized during the operation.

Following the arrests, simultaneous searches were launched at multiple locations linked to the accused as part of further investigation. A case has been registered against them under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, vigilance officials said.