Paradip: A CBI team on Thursday nabbed a doctor engaged as the Public Health Officer at Odisha’s Paradip port for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from an agent of Eminence Shipping Company.
The accused has been identified as Rajendra Narayan Panigrahi.
According to reports, Panigrahi was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe money from the Shipping company agent near Bhuiyan Chhak in Paradip town in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district.
There have been several complaints against Panigrahi that as a health officer at the port, he often extorted money from various shipping agents to examine the health condition of the crew members of different ships docking at the Paradip port.
Acting on a complaint, the CBI sleuths laid a trap to nab Panigrahi red-handed and was arrested when he was caught taking a Rs 50,000 bribe yesterday.
Later, the CBI sleuths searched his government residence and a rented house of the Housing Board and seized several documents. Cash worth Rs 1 crore, foreign liquor, foreign cigarettes, and foreign perfumes of various brands were seized from Panigrahi’s possession during the house searches.
Meanwhile, a four-member CBI team from Bhubaneswar has started a search in the house of Rajendra Narayan Panigrahi’s father Lakshmi Narayan in Balasore. The CBI is investigating the matter since 7.00 am today as a ‘procedural matter’.
