Odisha: Another Tehsildar gets arrested in Jajpur by vigilance

Odisha: An Additional Tehsildar was detained by the Odisha Vigilance on Friday after he was seen accepting a bribe from a lessee in exchange for a favorable delineation of his lease area.

Pradipta Kumar Sethi, ORS, Additional Tahasildar-cum-In-Charge Tehsildar of Binjharpur Tahasil in Jajpur district, was identified as the accused Odisha Revenue Services officer.

Vigilance sources state that in 2021, the lessee filed a writ suit with the High Court of Orissa, which directed the then-Tehsildar, Binjharpur, to demarcate the area. The lessee has been asking the Tehsildar to delineate his property ever since.

Sethi, however, insisted on receiving Rs 30,000 in order to demarcate the property and give him preference throughout the procedure. The lessee reported the issue to the vigilance authorities after many attempts to resolve the issue failed.

In response to the lessee’s allegation, vigilance detectives set up a trap on Friday and apprehended the accused Sethi as he accepted the bribe money from the landowner behind a medicine store in the Jajpur district’s Binjharpur.

In front of witnesses, the whole amount of bribe money was found and taken out of Sethi’s hands.

Following the trap, searches were conducted concurrently at Sethi’s office chamber, his home in his hometown of Mahakalpada in the Kendrapara district, and his rental home in Binjharpur.

Sethi, the accused, has been taken into custody and will probably appear in court on Saturday. It is noteworthy that Sukma Hansdah, the Inspector-in-Charge (IIC) of the Dasmantpur Police Station in Koraput district, was also detained by the state’s main anti-corruption agency on Thursday after it was discovered that she had accepted a bribe to help an accused person in a criminal case get bail.

Odisha Vigilance reportedly detained 271 government workers, including 20 police officers, after they were exposed in bribery instances over the previous 18 months.