Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance sleuths have arrested a Tata Power official on charges of bribery and corruption in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday night. The accused official was identified as Tusharkant Ray, Executive Engineer (Quality), Circle-1 of TPCODL Bhubaneswar. He was caught while taking Rs 20,000 bribe from a contractor for furnishing final inspection report for electricity supply to installed transformer.

Following the arrest, simultaneous searches were carried out at three locations associated with Ray from disproportionate assets (DA) angle. During house search, Rs 9.53 lakh cash was unearthed

As per reports, the contractor (complainant) was asked by Ray to pay an amount of Rs 20,000 in order to get the final inspection report in his favour for the transformer installed by the former in an apartment building. In order to get payment against his bill, the complainant had been requesting Ray for the clearance report since the last two months but the accused official was adamant about prior payment of the bribe amount in order to get the work done.

Finding no other way, the contractor approached the Vigilance authorities about the matter. Following the complaint, a team of Odisha Vigilance laid out a trap and watched the movements of the accused official. When the latter called the complainant to his residence, the anti-corruption bureau team caught him red-handed while accepting the bribe money.

The entire tainted bribe money was recovered. After the arrest, multiple raids were carried out at properties associated with Ray where Rs 9.53 lakh cash was detected. Official sources said a case has been registered and investigation is still underway to probe the DA angle.