Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance on Wednesday arrested an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of Mancheswar Police Station in Bhubaneswar and a Home Guard driver on charges of accepting a bribe from a complainant for returning seized mobile phones.

The accused have been identified as ASI Rajesh Kulu and Home Guard driver Jyoti Ranjan Behera. The duo was caught red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from the complainant.

As per reports, ASI Kulu was the Investigating Officer (IO) in a case involving the complainant. On June 12, Kulu had accepted Rs 30,000 from the complainant and returned one mobile phone linked to the case.

When the complainant later requested the return of another mobile phone, the ASI demanded an additional Rs 20,000. He told the complainant to hand over the money to Home Guard driver Behera and collect the mobile phone from him.

The complainant approached the Odisha Vigilance and lodged a complaint. Acting on the information, a Vigilance team laid a trap and apprehended both accused while they were accepting the Rs 20,000 bribe.

The entire bribe amount was recovered and seized from the accused during the operation.

Following the arrests, Vigilance officials launched simultaneous searches at two locations linked to ASI Rajesh Kulu as part of an investigation into possible disproportionate assets.

Further investigation is underway.