Bhawanipatna: A day after being “caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a businessman in Odisha,” young IAS officer Dhiman Chakma was remanded to 14 days of judicial custody by a court Monday.
Vigilance officials recovered Rs 47 lakh in cash from his residence in Kalahandi district Sunday.
He was working as the sub-collector of Dharmagarh.
M Radhakrishna, SP (Vigilance), said in a statement that Chakma was produced before the special judge vigilance, Bhawanipatna, which rejected his bail plea and remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days.
According to a vigilance statement, the 2021 batch IAS officer had threatened a local businessman to act against him if he did not pay Rs 20 lakh to him.
The businessman reported the matter to the Vigilance authorities.
“Based on the complaint, a trap was laid June 8, 2025, night, wherein accused Dhiman Chakma was nabbed by a team of Odisha Vigilance in his government quarters at Dharamgarh in Kalahandi district,” the statement said.
It said that the accused was caught red-handed accepting the Rs 10 lakh, and the entire amount was recovered from his possession in the presence of witnesses.
Following that, the department conducted simultaneous searches on the residential government quarters of Chakma and his office chamber.
“During the search, Rs 47 lakh in cash was found from his quarters at Dharamgarh. As he could not give any satisfactory explanation regarding such huge cash, the same was seized,” Radhakrishna said.
The SP said that a case has been registered against the IAS officer under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.
Chakma had joined the Odisha cadre as an Indian Forest Service officer of the 2019 batch. After undergoing training, he worked as the additional chief conservator at Baripada in Mayurbhanj from June 2021.
He, however, cleared the civil services exam in 2021 and was appointed as an IAS officer and assigned Odisha cadre. After training, he joined as Sub-Collector, Dharmagarh, Kalahandi in January 2024, the official said.
PTI
