Paradip: Port Health Organisation doctor Rajendra Narayan Panigrahi who was arrested by the CBI in a bribery case, was sent to jail after his three-day remand period ends today.
The Central probe agency today produced him in court which sent the doctor to judicial custody.
The CBI had arrested Panigrahi on the charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 54,000 on Friday.
The agency had laid a trap and caught him red-handed while accepting the bribe.
The sleuths of the Central Investigation Bureau also searched his premises in Paradip, Cuttack and Balasore and “recovered Rs 17 lakh and USD 20,558 in cash” and several documents, including deeds of properties at various places in Odisha and in Hyderabad in Telangana.
The doctor allegedly took a “bribe from a West Bengal-based shipping company to issue COVID-19 clearance certificates to its employees”, the official said.
The doctor was accused of demanding a bribe of Rs 1,500-2,000 from each crew member to give them the COVID clearance certificate.
On Thursday, he demanded over Rs 1 lakh from 70 crew members of the shipping company and was apprehended while taking the bribe.
