Keonjhar: Keonjhar Special Vigilance Court Judge Rashmita Dalei after hearing a bribery case Saturday sentenced the then Raisuan Revenue Inspector (RI) to four years of rigorous imprisonment and also slapped a fine of Rs4,000 on him. In default, the convict will have to undergo an additional two months imprisonment, the judge ordered.
The convicted retired RI was identified as Banchhanidhi Satapathy, a resident of Basudevpur village in Bhadrak district.
According to the case diary, there was a land dispute between Ajit Kumar Naik and Tikeshwar Sahu, both residents of Raisuan Harshpur village under Sadar tehsil and Raisuan RI circle in this district. Ajit then reported to Sadar police station April 10, 2017 requesting identification of his land. A letter was sent to the RI from the police station to identify the land. When the complainant Ajit Kumar Naik visited the RI office, Satapathy told him to deposit government fees of Rs200 along with a bribe amount of Rs2,000 by April 11, 2017, assuring to conduct the demarcation the next day.
The complainant then sent a written complaint in this regard to SP (Vigilance), Balasore through DSP (Vigilance), Keonjhar.
Based on the complaint, the Vigilance Department registered a case (No-17/2017) and arrested RI Banchhanidhi Satapathy along with the bribe amount he had received from the complainant at his office April 11, 2017.
The Special Vigilance Judge passed the above sentence based on the investigation report of the Vigilance department and statements of 12 witnesses. However, the then peon of the RI office, Tarinisen Patra, who took the bribe money and kept it in the office drawer, has been acquitted due to lack of evidence.
As the bail plea of the convicted RI was denied, he was sent to jail, said Special Public Prosecutor Debadatta Biswal was pleading the case on behalf of the government.
PNN