Land Acquisition Officer Caught Red-Handed While Accepting Rs 3.10 Lakh Bribe in Odisha, Vigilance Raids Three Locations:

The Odisha Vigilance Directorate on Monday arrested a land acquisition officer for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from a landowner in exchange for releasing compensation money, officials said.

The arrested officer, Ajay Kumar Garanaik, was serving as the Special Land Acquisition Officer for the Sambalpur-Talcher railway line doubling project.

According to vigilance officials, Garanaik had demanded Rs 5.10 lakh from the complainant to release Rs 84.62 lakh in land acquisition compensation. He had also allegedly promised to help the landowner with compensation related to the third railway line project.

The complainant had already paid Rs 2 lakh to the officer a few days ago. However, Garanaik was allegedly pressuring him to pay the remaining Rs 3.10 lakh.

The officer also threatened to create problems for the complainant during future land acquisition work if he failed to pay the remaining amount, officials said.

Following the demand, the complainant approached the Odisha Vigilance Directorate. The officer was caught red-handed on Monday while allegedly accepting the remaining Rs 3.10 lakh.

After the Vigilance officials launched simultaneous searches at three locations linked to Garanaik to check for assets allegedly acquired through illegal me