Asst Engineer held by vigilance on graft charge

An Assistant Engineer was arrested by anti-corruption vigilance sleuths in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district today for allegedly taking Rs 8,000 as bribe from a complainant for check measurement and preparation of bill for a road work.
A trap was laid by officers of Balasore Vigilance Division and accused Pramod Kumar Sethi was caught red handed while allegedly demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 8,000 from the comlainant at his residence located near Bahalda Block, a vigilance release said.
The bribe money was recovered from the possession of Sethi, Assistant Engineer in Bahalda Block of Mayurbhanj district, it said.
The complainant Kalinga Behera had alleged that for getting bill for completion of road work namely "Kajubana to Jahira" under Bahalda Block, he had requested the accused engineer to conduct check measurement of the road work and to prepare the bill amounting to Rs 1,30,000.

He also requested to the accused Sethi to prepare another estimate in respect of the project namely "Improvement of road from Laldunguri to Lalbandha", it said.
Behera approached the accused several times, but Sethi demanded illegal gratification amounting to Rs.10,000 for the purpose and later reduced the amount to Rs 8,000.