Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance on Saturday arrested a TPCODL employee while allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹15,000 from a farmer for work related to the replacement of a damaged electricity pole in Cuttack district.
The accused has been identified as Dharma Niranjan Chaudhury, Line Man-A of the Narsinghpur Electrical Section under TPCODL, Cuttack.
According to Vigilance officials, an 11 KV power line passed through the complainant farmer’s agricultural land, where an electricity pole had become damaged and was reportedly in a dangerous condition. Concerned about the possibility of an accident, the farmer approached the local electricity office seeking replacement of the pole.
Chaudhury was assigned the work and allegedly demanded a bribe of ₹25,000 from the farmer for replacing the damaged pole. Vigilance sources said the pole was replaced on June 2, and the accused allegedly received ₹8,000 from the farmer through a UPI transaction. He subsequently demanded the remaining amount and allegedly refused to remove the old pole from the farmer’s land.
When the farmer expressed his inability to pay the balance ₹17,000, the accused allegedly agreed to accept ₹15,000 after negotiations.
Aggrieved by the alleged demand, the farmer approached Odisha Vigilance authorities and lodged a complaint. Acting on the complaint, a Vigilance team laid a trap and apprehended Chaudhury while he was allegedly accepting the negotiated bribe amount of ₹15,000 from the complainant.
The entire tainted money was recovered from the exclusive possession of the accused and seized by the Vigilance team.
Following the trap, searches were launched at one location linked to Chaudhury to investigate possible disproportionate assets, officials said.
A case has been registered at Cuttack Vigilance Police Station vide Case No. 22 dated June 5, 2026, under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation is underway.
