Jajpur Revenue Assistant arrested for taking bribe

Odisha Vigilance officials arrested Prasanna Kumar Sahani, a Junior Revenue Assistant at the Jajpur Sub-Collector office, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000. The arrest occurred after Sahani was caught red-handed in his office while demanding and accepting the cash from an applicant.

The bribe was intended to facilitate permission for the purchase of a 16-decimal plot of land belonging to a Scheduled Caste owner. Under state regulations, statutory permission from competent authorities is mandatory for such transactions. The complainant reported that Sahani had been delaying the process without valid reason and initially demanded Rs 48,000, calculated at a rate of Rs 3,000 per decimal, before reducing the demand to Rs 40,000.

Following the trap, officials seized the entire bribe amount and conducted searches at Sahani’s office and his residence in Gobindapur. A case has been registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, and investigations into disproportionate assets are ongoing.