The anti-corruption wing of Odisha Vigilance on Monday apprehended two key revenue officers in Puri district for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 35,000 to process an official land conversion request.The accused duo—identified as Kalyani Jena, Revenue Inspector (RI), and Purna Chandra Behera, Assistant Revenue Inspector (ARI), both posted at the Siula RI Circle under Pipili Tahasil—were caught red-handed during a meticulously planned trap laid by officers of the Bhubaneswar Vigilance Division.According to official sources, the complainant had submitted a formal application under the standard statutory guidelines of the Revenue & Disaster Management (R&DM) Department, Government of Odisha, seeking the conversion of his agricultural land into homestead land.However, when the citizen visited the Siula RI office to check on the progress of his case, both RI Jena and ARI Behera explicitly demanded a bribe of Rs 35,000 to process the official enquiry report and forward it to higher authorities. Despite repeated pleas from the applicant emphasising compliance with all statutory conditions, the officials insisted on receiving the kickback before initiating any action.Unwilling to yield to extortion, the aggrieved applicant approached the Vigilance authorities, narrating the relentless harassment by the revenue staff. Acting swiftly on the complaint, a Vigilance team organised a sting operation on Monday.The duo was trapped at the moment they accepted the Rs 35,000 bribe from the complainant. The entire tainted currency was immediately recovered from their possession and seized as legal evidence.Following the arrest, Odisha Vigilance expanded its crackdown by initiating simultaneous search operations from the Disproportionate Assets (DA) angle across three locations linked to the accused:Office and residence at Village Bramhakumdi (Charichhak), PuriResidence at Achyutapur (Chandanpur), PuriResidence at Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar.In connection with the trap, Bhubaneswar Vigilance P.S. Case No. 20 dated 05.09.2026 has been registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. Further investigation against both accused officers is currently in progress.
Odisha Vigilance Nabs Two Puri Revenue Officials for Taking Rs 35K Bribe
