Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance on Friday apprehended a Junior Engineer (JE) of the General Electrical Division (GED), Jagatsinghpur, while allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹15,000 from a contractor for preparing an estimate related to the installation of streetlights in a Gram Panchayat under Jagatsinghpur district.
The accused, identified as Soma Das, had allegedly demanded the bribe from the executant for processing the estimate required to secure a work order for the project.
According to Vigilance officials, the executant had submitted a letter from the Gram Panchayat authority to the JE on May 8, 2026, seeking preparation of an estimate for a streetlight installation project valued at around ₹15 lakh. Despite repeated requests, the estimate remained pending without any valid reason.
Officials alleged that Das demanded ₹15,000 as illegal gratification, claiming it was one per cent of the total estimated project cost, for preparing the estimate and facilitating further processing of the work.
Aggrieved by the alleged demand, the executant approached Odisha Vigilance and lodged a complaint. Acting on the complaint, Vigilance officials laid a trap and apprehended Das while she was allegedly accepting the bribe amount from the complainant in her office chamber.
The entire tainted bribe amount of ₹15,000 was recovered from her possession and seized in the presence of witnesses, Vigilance sources said.
Following the trap, simultaneous searches are being conducted at two locations linked to the accused from a disproportionate assets (DA) angle.
In connection with the case, Cuttack Vigilance Police Station Case No. 24/2026 has been registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.
Further investigation is underway.
