Bhubaneswar: Two employees of the health Department in Odisha’s Gajapati district were today arrested by the Vigilance sleuths while taking Rs 25,000 as bribe from a trained physician to process the file for his appointment as a contractual doctor.

Jagdish Pattnaik, a clerk, and Niranjan Nayak, a peon, at the CDMO office in Gajapati had allegedly sought Rs 25,000 as bribe from the trained physician to process the file for his recruitment as a contractual doctor and issue an appointment letter in this regard.

The physician had lodged a complaint in this regard with the Vigilance Department. Subsequently, a trap was laid and the two employees of the CDMO office were caught while taking the bribe from the young medical practitioner.

The entire bribe money was recovered from the possession of the two employees and seized, said the Vigilance Department in a statement.

Following the trap, simultaneous searches are underway at two locations linked to Pattnaik to unearth any disproportionate assets (DA) amassed by him.

During the searches, the Vigilance sleuths have recovered Rs 5.19 lakh from the table drawer at Pattnaik’s office.

The Vigilance police station at Berhampur registered a case against Pattanaik and Nayak under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.