Saintala: Vigilance sleuths Friday arrested a tehsildar and an assistant tehsildar of Saintala in Bolangir district on charge of receiving bribe from a person to allow his sand-laden tractor without filing a case against him for ‘illegal sand lifting’.
The complaint lodged with the vigilance said Saintala tehsildar Anil Patnaik waylaid a tractor owned by Saroj Sahu while it was transporting sand from the nearby Bijli river. As Sahu was not present with the tractor, the tehsildar called him over his mobile phone and demanded Rs 10,000. Patnaik threatened to seize the vehicle and register a case against him if he fails to pay the sum.
As Saroj expressed his inability to pay the sum forthwith as he was away with a hospital emergency, Patnaik asked him to pay the sum later. After getting repeated phone calls from the tehsildar, Saroj met him June 7 and settled for Rs 5,000 Thursday.
Saroj later lodged a complaint with the Vigilance and as per a plan he went to the tehsildar’s chamber with the money. The tehsildar asked Saroj to hand over the sum to additional tehsildar Rajendra Khora who was present in his chamber. Saroj came out of the chamber after paying the money, when Vigilance officials entered the chamber and seized the money.
These two officials were arrested and produced in court.
Patnaik, however, denied the allegations against him and said he was the victim of a conspiracy hatched by his rivals.
Pleading innocence, he said he had noticed irregularities of over Rs 30 lakh in the tehsil office after he joined office over a month ago. Besides, there was no audit in the office since 2009.
As he apprised these matters to Titilagarh sub-collector Kailas Sahu, those involved in the irregularities have been acting against the tehsildar.
The additional tehsildar also pleaded his innocence in this issue.
In the meantime, Vigilance officials conducted a raid on the residence of Patnaik at Berhampur and the raid was on till the report was written.
The raiding team included Bolangir deputy superintendent of police (DSP) (Vigilance) Abhiram Kar, Subarnapur DSP Laxman Jal, inspectors Saroj Mohapatra, Bhojraj Das, Saroj Sahu and Pulasti Dehury. PNN
