Bhawanipatna, June 8: Odisha Vigilance on Monday apprehended a MGNREGA assistant in the Office of the Project Director (PD), Watershed, Bhawanipatna, while allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹35,000 from a beneficiary under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.

According to Vigilance officials, the beneficiary had executed farm pond works under the MGNREGA scheme and was entitled to receive bill payments amounting to approximately ₹2.68 lakh. Despite the release of a portion of the bill amount, Priyanka Jena allegedly demanded a bribe of ₹35,000 for facilitating the release of the already sanctioned payment and clearing the remaining pending bill amount.

Sources said the accused repeatedly pressured the beneficiary to pay the demanded bribe and allegedly threatened that the pending payment would not be processed unless the amount was paid. After several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue, the beneficiary approached Odisha Vigilance authorities and lodged a complaint alleging harassment and corruption.

Acting on the complaint, Odisha Vigilance laid a trap today and successfully caught Jena red-handed while accepting the bribe amount of ₹35,000 from the complainant. The entire tainted bribe money was recovered and seized from her possession in the presence of witnesses.

Following the successful trap operation, Vigilance officials launched simultaneous searches at two locations linked to Jena to investigate possible disproportionate assets (DA).

In connection with the case, Koraput Vigilance Police Station Case No. 09/2026 has been registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation is underway to ascertain the full extent of the alleged corrupt activities and to examine any disproportionate assets possessed by the accused.