Vigilance team arrests forest department junior assistant for taking Rs 30,000 bribe

Keonjhar: Vigilance sleuths on Wednesday arrested a junior assistant of the forest department while accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000 from a retired employee to process pension-related documents. The accused, Rupchand Nayak, posted at the office of deputy conservator of forests, Nicolson Forest Training School in Champua, was caught red-handed by vigilance officials.According to sources, Nayak allegedly demanded the bribe from Ghanashyam Mukhi, a retired peon of the same training school, to ready his final pension papers and arrear salary bill following his voluntary retirement in 2024. Despite repeated requests over the past year, the documents remained pending, prompting Mukhi to approach the vigilance department and file a formal complaint.Acting on the complaint, a team from the Keonjhar vigilance unit conducted the operation and recovered the entire bribe amount from Nayak’s possession. Following the arrest, simultaneous searches were conducted at Nayak’s office and residential quarters in Champua to examine potential disproportionate assets.