Bhubaneswar, Sep 25 (SocialNews.XYZ) Odisha Vigilance officials on Friday arrested a Junior Revenue Assistant (JRA) in Jajpur after catching him red-handed while accepting a bribe from an applicant to process a land purchase clearance file.
The accused government employee has been identified as Prasanna Kumar Sahani, presently posted at the office of the Jajpur Sub‑Collector. According to Vigilance officials, the complainant had submitted an application on November 29, 2025, seeking statutory permission to purchase 16 decimals of land from a Scheduled Caste (SC) category owner in favour of his mother.
As per state government regulations, prior permission from the competent revenue authority is mandatory before purchasing land belonging to individuals from SC or ST communities.
However, Sahani allegedly delayed processing the file without assigning any valid reason. After repeated requests and follow‑ups, he demanded illegal gratification of Rs 48,000, calculating the bribe rate at Rs 3,000 per decimal of land. When the applicant expressed inability to arrange the sum, Sahani reduced the demand to Rs 40,000.
Harassed by the persistent demand, the applicant lodged a formal complaint with the anti‑corruption agency. Acting on the complaint, Vigilance laid a trap on September 25. Sahani was caught in his office while demanding and accepting Rs 40,000 in cash.
Officials said they recovered and seized the entire bribe amount in the presence of independent witnesses. His chemical hand‑wash test also yielded a positive result. Following the trap, Vigilance teams launched simultaneous searches at Sahani’s office chamber and his residence at Gobindapur in Jajpur Sadar police limits.
A case (37/26) has been registered at the Kataka Vigilance Police Station under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.
Source: IANS
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