Boudh: Sleuths of the Vigilance department arrested Friday here Rabindra Nath Padhy, the senior clerk in the office of the block education officer (BEO) at Harbhanga in this district. He was caught red-handed while accepting Rs 20,000, the first installment of a total bribe amount of Rs 40,000 from a school teacher. Officials said that the entire amount was recovered from Padhy.
Officials said that the teacher Anusuya Nayak was being harassed by Padhy for the last six months. She had been requesting him to process a file. However, Padhy was adamant that unless he was paid Rs 40,000, he would not process it. Finding no other option available, Anusuya complained to the Vigilance department.
Accordingly, a trap was laid and Anusuya arrived at Padhy’s office with Rs 20,000. The moment she paid the amount to Padhy, the Vigilance sleuths swooped in and arrested Padhy and recovered the entire amount from him. Following the arrest, Vigilance officials raided two places belonging to Padhy to find out whether he had accumulated wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. A case (No. 8/2024) has been registered against Padhy under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2018, officials said.