Cuttack: The Vigilance sleuths Tuesday claimed to have arrested Directorate of Horticulture Management Information System (MIS) executive Pitabas Pradhan in connection with a graft case involving suspended IAS officer Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya.
Pradhan was sent to judicial custody after a local court rejected his bail plea, Vigilance sources said.
According Vigilance sources, Pradhan had joined Directorate of Horticulture as a data entry operator through outsourcing January 8, 2014. He was appointed as the MIS executive in September 1, 2019.
“Pradhan was processing the bills of many suppliers to the Horticulture department under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). He was assisting Upadhyaya, the former Horticulture director. Besides, Pradhan was acting as a conduit between the equipment suppliers and private banker Santosh Kumar Pattnaik, the co-accused in the case,” said a Vigilance officer.
Notably, the Vigilance officials had arrested Upadhyaya and Pattnaik on charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from the representative of SRM Plastochem Pvt Ltd, an empanelled supplier of micro-irrigation systems to eligible farmers under PMKSY. The duo was sent to jail after the rejection of their bail pleas by the court.
Upadhyaya’s wife recently alleged that her husband was falsely implicated in the case.
