Bhubaneswar, Nov 2: Odisha Vigilance has apprehended Special Land Acquisition Officer (SLAO) for the Sambalpur-Talcher Doubling Rail Line Project while allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹3.10 lakh from a landowner in exchange for releasing land acquisition compensation.

According to the Vigilance, Ajay Kumar Garanaik, the accused officer had demanded a total bribe of ₹5.10 lakh from the complainant for releasing compensation amounting of ₹84,62,288 towards land acquisition. He had also allegedly promised to extend favourable treatment in future compensation matters relating to the proposed third railway line project.

The officer had reportedly received ₹2 lakh from the complainant on October 27 and was subsequently demanding the remaining ₹3.10 lakh. He allegedly threatened the landowner with creating difficulties during future land acquisition proceedings for the third railway line project if the outstanding bribe amount was not paid immediately.

Fed up with the alleged harassment and intimidation, the complainant approached Odisha Vigilance and reported the matter to the authorities.

Acting on the complaint, a Vigilance team laid a trap today and caught Garanaik red-handed while allegedly accepting the remaining bribe amount of ₹3.10 lakh from the complainant.

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The entire tainted bribe money of ₹3,10,000 was recovered from the possession of the accused officer and subsequently seized by the Vigilance team.

Following the successful trap operation, Odisha Vigilance launched simultaneous searches at three locations linked to Garanaik to investigate possible possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income (DA).