Nabarangpur: A serving junior clerk and a retired government schoolteacher have been sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) each in a bribery case by the Special Judge, Vigilance, Jayapur, Friday.
The convicts are Tapan Kumar Khosla, a junior clerk currently posted at New Panchayat High School in Dabugaon, who was formerly attached to the office of the Block Education Officer (BEO), Kosagumuda, and Bijay Kumar Sahoo, a retired teacher of Mirganpada Primary School in Kosagumuda.
According to Odisha Vigilance, the two were chargesheeted for demanding and accepting a bribe from the widow of a retired school teacher in exchange for facilitating the sanction of her family pension.
The case was registered under Sections 7 and 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The court sentenced both men to four years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine on each. They were subsequently sent to jail to serve their sentences.
Following the conviction, Odisha Vigilance will move the competent authority to initiate proceedings for Khosla’s dismissal from service and the stoppage of Sahoo’s pension.
