The Odisha Vigilance on Sunday apprehended a junior engineer of the Rural Works Department in Nayagarh district along with his associate for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.36 lakh from a contractor in exchange for clearing pending bills and facilitating the refund of security deposits.

The accused has been identified as , posted as Junior Engineer at Bhapur Rural Works Section in Nayagarh. His associate, identified as Ashutosh Baliarsingh, was also appreheKeshab Subudhinded during the vigilance trap operation.

According to Vigilance officials, the accused engineer had allegedly demanded the bribe from a contractor for clearing bills related to construction and maintenance works executed under the Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana (MMSY) during 2021-22 in the Khandapara area. The amount was also allegedly sought for facilitating the release of the contractor’s Initial Security Deposit (ISD) and security money after completion of the maintenance period.

Officials said the contractor had been repeatedly requesting the engineer for the past three to four months to take measurements of the completed maintenance work and process the refund of the security deposit. However, the engineer allegedly demanded Rs 1.36 lakh as illegal gratification for the purpose.

Following a complaint lodged by the contractor, Odisha Vigilance laid a trap on Saturday. The junior engineer allegedly called the contractor to his official quarters at Khandapara and instructed him to hand over the bribe amount to Baliarsingh, who was reportedly engaged by him as a supervisor. Vigilance officials then apprehended both accused while they were allegedly accepting the bribe money.

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The entire tainted amount of Rs 1.36 lakh was recovered and seized by the vigilance team. Simultaneous searches were also launched at two locations linked to the junior engineer to investigate possible disproportionate assets.

In connection with the case, Bhubaneswar Vigilance Police Station Case No. 07 dated May 16, 2026 has been registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation into the matter is underway.