Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance today arrested a woman Junior Engineer (JE) of the General Electrical Division (GED) in Jagatsinghpur district on charges of accepting Rs 15,000 as bribe from a contractor.

Accused Soma Das had allegedly sought bribe from the contractor for issuing work order for installation of street lights at a gram panchayat in Jagatsinghpur.

She had reportedly asked the contractor to pay at least 1 per cent of the project cost, estimated around Rs 15 lakh, as bribe to get the work order.

The contractor had approached the Odisha Vigilance. Subsequently, a trap was laid and the woman JE was arrested while taking Rs 15,000 as bribe from the contractor.

The entire bribe amount was recovered from the JE and seized. Following the trap, simultaneous searches are going on at two locations linked to the accused JE to trace any disproportionate assets (DA), said the Vigilance Department.

A case has been registered against the accused JE under the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 and further investigation into the matter is underway, it added.