Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has raised serious questions over fairness and credibility of the Vigilance department, the premier anti-corruption watchdog of the state government.
After finding incriminating evidence against some Vigilance officials including a former DSP in a fake trap case, the commission has awarded Rs 5 lakh compensation to the victim government engineer.
Meanwhile, the authorities have been asked to recover the compensation amount from the erring ex-DSP, Himanshu Sekhar Mishra, who had carried out the fake trap on the engineer at the behest of a local contractor, Suresh Nayak.
As per the order, the complainant, Rajendra Parsad Mishra, was a junior engineer at NAC office of Kamakhyanagar in Dhenkanal district. He reportedly did not allow Nayak, to execute a work order he fetched reportedly for substandard work. Subsequently, Nayak connived with the Vigilance sleuths to implicate Rajendra in a false bribe case.
Accordingly, DSP Mishra along with constables Udhab Charan Lenka and Srinibas Biswal, and home guard Surendra Dhal laid the fake trap at the office of Rajendra March 24, 2017. The video footage of the CCTV installed at the complainant’s office and presented before the OHRC clearly showed the Vigilance sleuths putting the bribe money in the drawer of the office table of Rajendra.
The victim was also attacked by the contractor with an iron rod in the presence of the Vigilance DSP.
The rights body after examining the CCTV footage, reports by DIG, Vigilance, and the statement by the officials said, “We are inclined to hold that the trap was a concocted and a staged-managed one at the instance of the contractor and the concerned Vigilance personnel including the DSP, Sri Mishra have acted in a manner which is not expected from an officer of anti-corruption watchdog like the Vigilance Department.”
Apart from the compensation, the commission also asked the Vigilance department to not associate the two constables and home guard accompanying DSP Himanshu in any serious matter of the department in future.
The OHRC further directed the government to initiate steps for the blacklisting the contractor.
The district social welfare officer of Dhenkanal has been asked by the rights panel to take stringent action against the DSWO officials who gave false testimonies against Rajendra as independent witnesses.
The commission has asked the authorities to comply with its order within two months.
