Staff of Odisha Horticulture Directorate held for links with tainted IAS officer

Bhubaneswar: Alleged connections between more officers of Horticulture Directorate and IAS officer Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya, who was arrested in a bribery case, has come to the fore.

Vigilance today arrested Management Information System (MIS) Executive Officer of Horticulture Directorate, Pitabas Pradhan for his links with Bijay Ketan. As per reports, Vigilance had reliable information that some Horticulture Directorate officials were cooperating with Bijay Ketan in accepting bribes.

Worth mentioning, Bijay Ketan has been arrested for demanding a bribe of Rs one lakh from a company when he was the Horticulture Director. With the help of Santosh Kumar Pattanayak, relationship manager of Yes Bank, the IAS was taking bribe.

Vigilance sleuths had caught the bank official red-handed when he was accepting the bribe on the behalf of Bijay Ketan for releasing the firm’s bill of Rs 50 lakh.

At present, the IAS officer is lodged in Jharpada jail after his bail plea was rejected.