Senior clerk of ESI hospital under Vigilance scanner for accepting bribe in Odisha’s Rourkela

Rourkela: A team of Odisha Vigilance sleuths today arrested a senior assistant identified as Abhiram Sahu, presently working in the ESI dispensary at Jail Road in Rourkela of Sundargarh district, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from an accident-injured man.

According to an official source, clerk Sahu accepted the bribe to process the complainant’s medical reimbursement claim under the ESI scheme. The latter being a poor man, had repeatedly been requesting accused Sahu to process his medical claim for long. However, Sahu was insisting the accident injured to pay the demanded bribe to get his work done.

The accident victim expressed his inability to pay the bribe and finding no other way, informed the Odisha Vigilance team from Rourkela division about it narrating his harassment by the accused.

Accordingly, Vigilance officials trapped Sahu and caught him red-handed while accepting a bribe. The entire money has been recovered and seized from the possession of accused Sahu. Following the successful trap, simultaneous searches are underway at two different locations linked to clerk Sahu from a disproportionate assets (DA) angle.

Rourkela Vigilance PS case (No-04, dated 28.02.2024, U/s-7 of the PC (Amendment) Act, 2018 has been registered in this connection. A detailed probe against accused Sahu is underway.

“Sahu is being questioned to gather more information,” a senior official said.