A senior labour official in Keonjhar was trapped by Odisha Vigilance on Sunday evening after allegedly demanding and accepting ₹20,000 from an electrical contractor to issue a labour licence — a document the contractor needed only to put workers on a power utility job.
Akash Bisoi, OLS-1, District Labour Officer (DLO), Kendujhar, was apprehended while taking the cash, officials said. The entire tainted amount of ₹20,000 was recovered from his possession and seized. A case has been registered at Baleshwar Vigilance Police Station as Case No. 18/2026 under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Investigation is under way.
The contractor had been assigned electrical installation work by TP Northern Odisha Distribution Limited (TPNODL). To engage labourers for the job, he applied online on 14 August 2026 for a labour licence in the name of his agency, following the rules of the Labour and ESI Department, Government of Odisha.
Two days later, when he asked about the status of the application, Bisoi allegedly demanded ₹20,000 to process the licence. The contractor reported the demand to Vigilance, saying he was being harassed for a statutory clearance that should have followed the prescribed procedure.
Acting on the complaint, a Vigilance team laid a trap and caught the DLO on 30 August 2026 while he was taking the bribe. Immediately after the trap, simultaneous searches began at two locations linked to Bisoi to examine whether he has assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The case sits in a familiar pattern: an online application, a delay, a cash demand, a citizen complaint, and a trap. Labour licences are meant to regulate working conditions and legal engagement of workers — not become a private toll on contractors executing public utility work.
