Food safety officer arrested on graft charges

A food safety officer was among four government employees arrested by vigilance personnel in Odisha for allegedly accepting bribe, a vigilance statement said.

The food safety officer, Tapaswini Behera and senior helper of Berhampur Municipal Corporation, Dharmananda Nayak, were on Tuesday caught while accepting the illegal gratification of Rs 1,000 from a hotel owner for renewal of the food license of the hotel, the statement said.

Following a complaint by the hotel owner, a trap was laid by vigilance personnel who recovered the money from the table drawer of Behera.

In another operation, Riship Kumar Pruset, a junior clerk in the office of the sub-collector, Kuchinda in Sambalpur district was on Tuesday caught for accepting illegal gratification of Rs 5,000 from the chief priest of the Lord Jagannath temple there, the statement said.

The bribe was demanded for processing a file in respect of transfer of Rs 27,200 to the chief priests account towards day-to-day expenditure of the Jagannath Temple at Kuchinda.

Also Read | HC quashes CBI's look out circular against Karti Chidambaram 

The sub-collector of Kuchinda is the ex-officio president of the Jagannath Temple at Kuchinda. The income received from all sources are deposited in SBI, Kuchinda in the account maintained in the name of the sub-collector, Kuchinda, the release said.

In yet another trap, Guru Charan Munda, head clerk- cum-accountant in the statistics wing of the district planning and monitoring unit, Mayurbhanj, Baripada was caught for accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 from a retired statistical field inspector to process his GPF and pension papers.

The bribe was recovered from his pocket on Tuesday’s operation following which the head clerk was arrested.