Bhubaneswar: Vigilance sleuths arrested two officials including an Assistant Agriculture Officer (AAO) for taking Rs 5,000 as bribe from a person in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district today.  

The arrested officials have been identified as AAO Nilakantha Parida and Block Technology Manager Surendra Singh Bundela of Agriculture office at Umerkote in Nabarangpur.

The duo had sought Rs 5,000 as bribe from a beneficiary of the Jalanidhi scheme to provide the subsidy amount for digging a borewell.

The beneficiary had lodged a complaint in this regard with the Odisha Vigilance. The Vigilance sleuths laid a trap and caught the two officials red-handed while accepting the bribe from the complainant.

The bribe money was recovered from the two officials and simultaneous searches were carried out at several places linked to them to trace any disproportionate asset, said the Vigilance department in a statement.

The two officials have been arrested and a case has been registered under Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act-2018, it added.