The Odisha Vigilance on Saturday apprehended an ICDS Supervisor and a Junior Revenue Assistant (JRA) from the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) office in Hinjilikatu, Ganjam, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000.
The accused, identified as ICDS Supervisor B. Uma Patro and JRA Narasingha Behera, were caught red-handed while accepting the cash from an Anganwadi worker.
According to vigilance officials, the duo demanded the illicit payment in exchange for releasing the house rent for the complainant’s Anganwadi Centre, which had been deliberately withheld for the past 11 months.
The corrupt officials allegedly threatened the Anganwadi worker, stating that if the Rs 30,000 cut was not paid, they would indefinitely block the release of the center’s house rent for all upcoming months. Left with no alternative, the complainant reported the extortion attempt to vigilance authorities.
Acting on the intelligence, an anti-corruption team laid a trap and successfully apprehended both Patro and Behera inside the CDPO office premises just as the transaction took place. The entire tainted sum of Rs 30,000 was recovered from the accused and seized on the spot.
Following the successful trap, vigilance teams launched simultaneous searches at the residential properties of both Patro and Behera to investigate potential Disproportionate Assets (DA).
Brahampur Vigilance has registered P.S. Case No. 10, dated September 19, 2026, under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation into the matter is actively progressing.
