Odisha's vigilance department arrests 2019 OAS topper while taking Rs.15,000 bribe
Odisha Vigilance arrested three government officers, including OAS topper Aswini Kumar Panda, for corruption. Panda, a Tahasildar, was caught accepting a bribe for land conversion. Searches at his residence revealed a significant amount of unaccou...
By ET Online | Updated:
Aswini Kumar Panda (File photo)
Three government officers from Odisha have been arrested by the state’s vigilance department on Friday by Odisha Vigilance in separate corruption cases across the state, according to PTI. One of them is Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) topper of the 2019 batch, Aswini Kumar Panda, who was arrested
Panda, who is currently posted as Tahasildar of Bamra in Sambalpur district, was arrested after being allegedly caught accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 through his office driver for processing a land conversion case. A vigilance official said Panda had demanded the bribe from a complainant seeking conversion of agricultural land to homestead land in a mutation case.
Bribe demand reduced from Rs. 20,000
According to Sambalpur SP (Vigilance) P K Dwivedi, Panda initially demanded Rs 20,000 but reduced the amount to Rs 15,000 after the complainant expressed inability to pay. The complainant then approached vigilance authorities, who laid a trap and caught Panda’s driver, P. Praveen Kumar, red-handed while accepting the bribe on his behalf. Both Panda and the driver were taken into custody, as reported by PTI.
Subsequent searches at Panda’s residence and office led to the recovery of Rs 4.73 lakh in cash and gold ornaments, a vigilance official told PTI.
Cash and jewellery recovered from Panda's house.
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Officials said Panda was born on July 13, 1992, and had topped the Odisha Civil Services examination conducted by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) in 2019. He entered government service as a Training Reserve Officer (TRO) at the Balasore collector's office on December 30, 2021. He later served as Shamakhunta tahasildar in Mayurbhanj district before being posted as Bamra tahasildar on July 1, 2025.
— OdishaVigilance (@OdishaVigilance)
Two other officials arrested in separate cases
In a separate case, Chittaranjan Rout, the District Labour Officer of Nayagarh, was arrested after being allegedly caught accepting a bribe of Rs 6,000 from a labourer in exchange for issuing 20 labour cards.
In another case, Puspita Mahakud, a panchayat official, was arrested for allegedly misappropriating government funds amounting to over Rs 5.68 lakh. The funds were meant for disbursement to senior citizens under the old-age pension scheme.
