Bhadrak: Odisha Vigilance on Friday apprehended a junior assistant working in the District Education Officer (DEO) office in Bhadrak district for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a private school functionary.

The accused has been identified as Srikanta Kumar Dash, Junior Assistant in the office of the DEO, Bhadrak.

Rs 10,000 bribe demand for school recognition certificate lands staffer in trouble

According to Vigilance, Dash had allegedly demanded Rs 10,000 to process a file related to the issuance of a recognition certificate in favour of a private school in the district. Despite repeated requests from the school functionary to process the file without any illegal payment, the accused allegedly insisted on receiving the bribe.

Finding no alternative, the school representative approached Odisha Vigilance and lodged a complaint regarding the alleged demand.

Acting on the complaint, a Vigilance team laid a trap and caught Dash red-handed while he was allegedly accepting the bribe amount of Rs 10,000 from the complainant on June 5.

Officials said the entire tainted bribe money was recovered from Dash's possession and subsequently seized as evidence.

Following the successful trap operation, Odisha Vigilance launched simultaneous searches at two locations linked to the accused to investigate possible disproportionate assets (DA).

In connection with the case, Balasore Vigilance Police Station Case No. 09 dated June 4, 2026, has been registered against Dash under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.

Further investigation is underway, and Vigilance said additional details would be released after the completion of preliminary inquiries.