Jagatsinghpur: Odisha Vigilance on Thursday apprehended a programmer working at the District Education Officer-cum-District Project Coordinator (DEO-cum-DPC) office of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Jagatsinghpur, while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000.

The accused, identified as Chandrajit Parija, was demanding the money from an executant for facilitating the release of pending bills related to the installation of digital blackboards in schools across Jagatsinghpur district.

According to the Vigilance, Parija was a member of the procurement and technical committee responsible for inspecting the installation work. His certification was required for the release of the bills in favour of the executant.

The complainant made several requests to Parija to inspect the completed work. However, the Vigilance said Parija did not take steps to conduct the inspection and instead demanded Rs 30,000 for facilitating clearance of the pending bills.

Following the complaint, Odisha Vigilance laid a trap and caught Parija while accepting the bribe on Thursday. The entire tainted amount of Rs 30,000 was recovered from his possession and seized.

Following the trap, simultaneous searches are being conducted at three locations linked to Parija as part of a disproportionate assets investigation.

The investigation is underway.