Bhubaneswar: On charges of demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹4,000 from a college staffer, the Odisha Vigilance on Tuesday apprehended an auditor working at the Regional Director of Education (RDE) office.

The accused, Ambika Prasad Rath, was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe to facilitate service verification and necessary corrections in pay fixation statements under the Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP) scheme, enabling the release of salary.

According to officials, the staffer of a degree college in Khordha district had approached Vigilance authorities after Rath allegedly demanded the bribe for processing the case.

Acting on the complaint, a Vigilance team laid a trap and apprehended Rath while he was accepting the bribe. The entire tainted amount of ₹4,000 was recovered from his possession and seized.

Following the trap, simultaneous searches were conducted at his office and residence on suspicion of disproportionate assets. During the search, an additional ₹1.28 lakh was recovered from his office drawer and personal possession, which is suspected to be proceeds of earlier bribes collected during the day.

In this connection, a case has been registered at Bhubaneswar Vigilance Police Station under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation is underway.