BARGARH: Vigilance officials on Monday apprehended a junior clerk in the office of the Barpali block education officer (BEO) while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 6,000 from an employee to prepare a bill for withdrawal of arrear salary.
The accused is Rajani Kanta Kar, a junior clerk-cum-accountant in the Barpali BEO office.
Vigilance officials said Kar was deliberately delaying the preparation of the bill required for withdrawal of arrear salary of an employee of the same office. Despite repeated requests by the employee, Kar allegedly demanded Rs 6,000 to process the bill. Aggrieved by the demand, the employee lodged a complaint with the Vigilance authorities.
Acting on the complaint, a Vigilance team laid a trap and caught Kar red-handed while he was reportedly accepting the bribe. The entire bribe amount of Rs 6,000 was recovered from his possession and seized.
Following the trap, Vigilance officials launched simultaneous searches at two locations linked to Kar. Sambalpur Vigilance police station has registered a case under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 against the accused. Further investigation is underway.