Exec Engineer lands in Vigilance net while taking bribe

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Oct 4:

Odisha Vigilance today arrested Gopal Chandra Nayak, Executive Engineer of Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) Koraput division after he was caught red-handed while he was taking a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from a contractor for passing a bill.

Nayak, who had demanded a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from Kulamani Sahoo, a contractor, was caught by Vigilance officials while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from the latter in a hotel room here to pass a bill worth Rs 30 lakh.

Vigilance officials have also seized Rs 1.5 lakh in cash from Nayak’s possession apart from the Rs 2 lakh bribe amount.

“He had demanded Rs 4 lakh from contractor Kulamani Sahoo to pass the final bill amounting to Rs 30 lakh. He was caught by officials of Balasore Vigilance division while he was demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh. The bribe amount of Rs 2 lakh has been recovered from him. His chemical hand wash has given positive chemical reaction confirming of his acceptance of bribe money,” said B N Gochhayat, a senior Vigilance official.

However, Nayak has claimed that he has been trapped.

“I have been framed. If you go by circumstantial evidence, terms and conditions of the contract and on what grounds we had differences it can be well traced out that I have been framed,” said Nayak in his reaction after being caught by the Vigilance.

Moreover, Vigilance has also conducted simultaneous raids at Nayak’s official residence, ancestral house in Nabarangpur and two storied building at Santoshi Nagar in Jeypore.

“Nayak has been caught while taking a bribe of Rs 2 lakh in Bhubaneswar. In this connection were conducting a search at his residence here. By now we have found around Rs 1.3 lakh cash, gold jewellery, car etc. We are examining his bank accounts and other documents,” said Sashi Bhusan Mishra, S P (Vigilance) Koraput.