BHUBANESWAR: Yet another forest officer of the State has landed in Vigilance net on corruption charges. Range Officer of Brahmagiri Sahaji Charan Biswal was caught red-handed taking a bribe of `35,000 from a person on Tuesday.
The complainant had sought permission for transportation of casuarina trees but the Range Officer demanded gratification to issue the timber transport (TT) permit.
Biswal is the seventh forest officer to have been netted by the anti-corruption agency in the last year and a half. Going by the record, as many as 14 forest officials, from Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) to foresters, have been booked by the State Vigilance for corrupt practices.
The agency has registered as many 13 disproportionate assets (DA) cases and 16 trap cases from January 1, 2016 to August 24 this year. The Vigilance has also registered four miscellaneous cases. In total, 33 cases involving 39 persons have been registered. What is striking about the corruption charges is the huge volume of assets that the forest officers have accumulated.
“Our investigation, so far, has revealed that the total volume of disproportionate assets in the 13 cases stand at a whopping `18 crore. It is beyond the actual expenditure and income that these officials have officially reported,” said Director of Vigilance Dr RP Sharma, when contacted. What it actually has shown is the magnitude of the corrupt practices in the field levels of the Forest department.
There have been instances of forest range officers caught taking a bribe of `1.5 lakh. Meanwhile, the Vigilance is conducting searches at the residential house of Biswal in Samantrapur here.
According to Bhubaneswar Division of the Vigilance which laid the trap, one Gurudatta Palei had planted the casuarina trees on his property and authorised Niranjan Pradhan to fell the trees and sell the same. Accordingly, he cut the entire casuarina trees and sold 44 trips after obtaining TT permits from ACF, Puri through the Range Officer.
A week back, Pradhan requested Biswal for issuing permit for transportation of another seven trips of casuarinas but the Range Officer demanded `35,000. After a complaint, a trap was laid on Tuesday and Biswal was caught red-handed. After taking the bribe, Biswal was trying to leave the place in a Bolero but he was detained and the tainted cash was recovered from his possession.