Mayurbhanj: Vigilance officers Monday arrested two engineers of the Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation (OLIC) for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 60,000 from a contractor to release pending payments, an official said.
The arrested officials were identified as assistant executive engineer Harekrushna Singh and junior engineer Subrat Mohanty, both posted at the Udala sub-division of OLIC in Mayurbhanj district.
The two engineers were caught while allegedly demanding and accepting the bribe amount in instalments, with Rs 32,000 meant for Singh and Rs 28,000 for the JE, the vigilance official said.
According to vigilance officials, the contractor had executed projects worth around Rs 25 lakh, but bills amounting to about Rs 5 lakh, along with the security deposit, were withheld.
The engineers allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 1.10 lakh, calculated at 4.5 per cent of the project value, to clear the dues.
Faced with such harassment, the contractor approached vigilance authorities, following which the duo was arrested. The bribe amount has been seized from the possession of the two engineers.
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