BHUBANESWAR : The Vigilance on Wednesday arrested the executive officer of Belaguntha NAC in Ganjam for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000 from a staff for relieving him after his transfer.
The accused, Banamali Satpathy, an Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) officer, was caught red-handed while demanding and accepting the bribe to relieve the employee and process his salary arrears as well as the last pay certificate (LPC), required for drawing salary at his new place of posting.
Vigilance sleuths also conducted searches at his government quarter and office at Belaguntha and residence at Kabisurya Nagar, which led to recovery of Rs 1.6 lakh in cash. Satpathy and his family members were also found in possession of five buildings at Kabisurya Nagar and seven plots, six in Ganjam and one in Puri, an official from vigilance said.
“Following complaint from the staff member, a Vigilance team laid a trap near the Balipadar bus stop and Satpathy was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe. A case was registered under relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act and Satpathy was arrested. He will be forwarded to court soon,” the official said.
Satpathy joined government service as a junior clerk in 1989 and served in the ORS rank from 2016 to 2022. In 2022, he was promoted to the rank of OAS and served as executive officer of Paralakhemundi and Umerkote NACs before joining as the executive officer of Belaguntha NAC in February 2025.
