Bhubaneswar, Oct 13 — The Odisha Vigilance on Tuesday arrested a Revenue Inspector in Balangir district after he was caught red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe from an applicant to facilitate the conversion of agricultural land into homestead land in a mutation case.
The accused, identified as Alan Behera, the Revenue Inspector, is currently posted at the Saintala Revenue Circle of the Balangir district.
Behera was apprehended by vigilance sleuths for demanding and taking a bribe of Rs. 3,000 from the complainant to process the file and to submit a field enquiry report to the competent authority for conversion of his agricultural land to homestead land in a mutation case.
The applicant, who applied online for land conversion on September 7, alleged that RI Behera delayed the process and demanded a Rs 6,000 bribe to issue a homestead RoR.
When the complainant expressed his inability to pay the demanded bribe, the accused RI reduced the bribe amount to Rs. 3,000. Feeling aggrieved and unable to meet the demand, the complainant approached the Vigilance authorities.
Based on the said complaint, the cops laid a trap on Tuesday and apprehended the accused Behera in his office room for taking a bribe of Rs. 3,000 from the complainant.
Following the trap, simultaneous searches have been launched on the residential house of Behera located at Patharla under Titilagada in Balangir district and his office room.
In a separate corruption case, Vigilance officials on Tuesday arrested Jayadev Jena, Assistant Block Education Officer (ABEO) of Dharmasala in Jajpur district, for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income by 68 per cent.
During house searches, the cops found Jena and his family members were in possession of three multi-storeyed buildings, 19 plots at Bhubaneswar and Ganjam district’s Khalikote and Kodala, and gold of approximately 740 gms. deposits Rs.40 lakhs, one 4-wheeler, two 2-wheelers and household articles worth Rs.18.65 Lakhs.
“After a thorough search, inventory and further enquiry, the income, expenditure and assets of Jayadev Jena, ABEO, Dharmasala were calculated, and he was found in possession of disproportionate assets which were 68 per cent in excess of his known sources of income,” said a vigilance official.