Bhubaneswar, 05 January (H.S.): Odisha Vigilance on Monday arrested two officials of the Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation (OLIC) while allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹60,000 from a contractor for clearing pending bills in Mayurbhanj district.

The accused have been identified as Harekrushna Sing, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), and Subrat Mohanty, Junior Engineer (JE), both attached to the OLIC Udala Sub-Division. Mohanty is posted as JE at Baripada and was holding additional charge of Udala.

According to Vigilance sources, the duo was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe amount—₹32,000 as the AEE’s share and ₹28,000 as the JE’s share—from a contractor for releasing pending bills related to completed works. The contractor had executed lift irrigation projects worth around ₹25 lakh, but bills amounting to nearly ₹5 lakh and the security deposit were allegedly withheld by the officials.

The officials reportedly demanded a total bribe of ₹1.10 lakh, calculated at 4.5 percent of the bill amount, to clear the dues. Following repeated harassment, the contractor approached the Vigilance department, which laid a trap and arrested both officials while they were accepting the first installment of the bribe. The entire tainted amount of ₹60,000 was recovered from their possession and seized.

Following the arrest, simultaneous searches were conducted at two locations linked to AEE Harekrushna Sing and three locations associated with JE Subrat Mohanty from a disproportionate assets angle.

In this connection, Balasore Vigilance Police Station Case No. 1/2026 has been registered against the accused under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation is underway.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Monalisa Panda