Bhubaneswar: Vigilance sleuths Thursday caught red-handed a government employee while receiving bribe in lieu of clearing a pending file. The officials arrested Gita Khadia, a section officer in the office of Directorate of Soil Conservation and Watershed Development at Suryanagar here.
According to sources, the complainant, Simanchala Nayak, a retired project director in the Watershed department at Paralakhemundi in Gajapati, had approached Khadia to forward his revised pension file pending at his desk for several months to higher authorities. Khadia processed his file and started demanding bribe from Nayak. He also threatened him to create hindrances in the process of his file further.
Subsequently, Nayak informed the matter to the Vigilance sleuths who laid a trap to catch Khadia.
The Vigilance officials Thursday held him along with the bribe money of Rs 5,000 from his office. Chemical examination of the cash and Khadia’s hands and shirt corroborated his crime too. Khadia was sent to judicial custody after court rejected his bail plea.