Engineer, Clerk in Vigilance Net

CUTTACK:  An executive engineer and clerk of the Rural Works (RW) division at Nuabazaar here were caught red-handed by Vigilance officials while taking a bribe of Rs 7,000 on Wednesday.

The executive engineer Pranakrushna Prasad and junior clerk Basanta Kumar Kamal had allegedly demanded the money from a contractor Subash Prasad Rath of Banikantha Nagar under Athagarh block for releasing his security deposit.

Rath said he had executed a special road work from Landeilo to Routraypur worth Rs 35 lakh in 2012-13 for which he had deposited Rs 1.73 lakh as security amount.

On completion of work a-year-and-half back, he had applied for return of security deposit but Prasad demanded Rs 17,000 as cut money. Prasad asked Rath to make the payment to Kamal. When Rath initially paid Rs 10,000 to Kamal, he was asked to pay the full amount following which the contractor informed Vigilance sleuths who laid a trap and caught Kamal while taking balance amount of Rs 7,000. Cuttack Vigilance been registered a case.