Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance officials on Tuesday apprehended Rajnarayan Sahoo and Jiten Patnaik, both Junior Accountants serving in the office of the Civil Supplies Officer (CSO), Angul, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from the manager of a rice mill.
The bribe was solicited in exchange for disbursing a bill amount of over Rs. 60 lakh related to Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) owed to the rice mill.
According to an official press release, the manager of the rice mill had been persistently requesting Sahoo and Patnaik for the past month to release the pending payment. However, the accused refused to process the payment unless the manager paid them the demanded bribe of Rs. 50,000. Left with no other option, the manager reported the matter to the Vigilance authorities, alleging harassment by the two accountants. Acting on the complaint, the Odisha Vigilance team caught Sahoo and Patnaik red-handed while accepting the bribe from the complainant.
The entire bribe amount of Rs. 50,000 was recovered from the accused and seized as evidence. Following the successful operation, the Vigilance department launched simultaneous searches at two locations linked to Sahoo and Patnaik to investigate potential disproportionate assets (DA).
A case has been registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation into the matter is currently underway.
