Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance on Wednesday apprehended two employees of the Regional Transport Office (RTO), Rourkela, for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 26,000 to process Fresh Registration Certificate (FRC) applications for two trucks purchased through a bank auction.
The accused have been identified as Niranjan Sandha, Dealing Clerk-cum-Night Watcher, and Dharmendra Kumar Behera, IT Executive, both attached to the RTO, Rourkela.
According to an official Vigilance release, the complainant had recently purchased two trucks auctioned by IndusInd Bank after the previous owner defaulted on loan repayment. As required under the Transport Department’s rules, the new owner applied for issuance of Fresh Registration Certificates for the vehicles.
However, despite repeated requests, the applications were allegedly not processed by the dealing clerk, who is accused of demanding Rs 26,000 as illegal gratification at the rate of Rs 13,000 per vehicle for clearing the applications.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the vehicle owner approached Odisha Vigilance, following which officials laid a trap. Sandha and his associate Behera were allegedly caught while accepting the bribe amount from the complainant.
Vigilance officials recovered and seized the entire tainted amount of Rs 26,000 from the accused during the operation.
Following the trap, simultaneous searches were launched at three locations associated with Sandha to verify allegations of possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
A case has been registered at Rourkela Vigilance Police Station under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation into the case is underway.
