Bargarh, June 10: Odisha Vigilance on Tuesday arrested a Junior Engineer in Gaisilet block of Odisha’s Bargarh district for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 8,000 from a contractor.
The accused official has been identified as Susmita Oram.
As per reports, Susmita had demanded a total of Rs 32,000 as bribe to approve payments for a road improvement project under the MGNREGA scheme from the complainant, a contractor involved in the project.
According to Vigilance, the project was estimated to cost Rs 9.5 lakh. Out of this, Rs 3.15 lakh had already been paid. Susmita allegedly asked for a 10% bribe, Rs 32,000, on the amount that was paid, to clear the remaining payments. She had already taken Rs 24,000 earlier.
After being repeatedly harassed by Susmita for the bribe, the complainant approached the Vigilance team. Acting on his complaint, the officials laid a trap and caught the engineer while she was taking Rs 8,000. The entire amount was recovered from her possession and seized.
Following the arrest, Odisha Vigilance launched simultaneous searches at two locations linked to Oram to investigate the disproportionate assets (DA) angle.
A case has been registered at Sambalpur Vigilance Police Station under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 and further investigation into the matter was underway.
Notably, Oram started working as a Junior Engineer in the government on January 10, 2024, under the DRDA in Bargarh. She was posted to the Gaisilet block on January 29, 2024. This was her first job posting.
