2019 OAS topper held for taking Rs 15K bribe

Highlights

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance on Friday arrested three government officials, including 2019-batch Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) topper Aswini...

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance on Friday arrested three government officials, including 2019-batch Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) topper Aswini Kumar Panda, on charges of corruption in separate cases across the State. Panda, currently posted as tehsildar of Bamra in Sambalpur district, was caught while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 through his office driver for processing a land conversion case, a Vigilance official said.

“Panda has been apprehended for demanding and taking undue advantage of Rs 15,000 from the complainant for conversion of agricultural land to homestead land in a mutation case,” Odisha Vigilance said. For about a month, the complainant had been requesting Panda for conversion of agricultural land. But, he demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 for the work, Sambalpur SP (Vigilance) P K Dwivedi said.

When the complainant expressed his inability to pay such a huge amount, Panda reduced the amount to Rs 15,000. Left with no option, the complainant approached Vigilance authorities. Acting on a complaint, Vigilance officials laid a trap and apprehended the officer’s driver, P Praveen Kumar, while accepting the bribe on Panda’s behalf. Both Panda and the driver were taken into custody. Subsequent searches at Panda’s residence and office led to the recovery of Rs 4.73 lakh in cash and gold ornaments, the official added.

According to Vigilance officials, Panda, born on July 13, 1992, topped in Odisha Civil Services examination conducted by Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) in 2019 and entered government service as a Training Reserve Officer (TRO) on December 30, 2021 in the office of the Balasore Collector. Then he joined as Shamakhunta tehsildar in Mayurbhanj district and was later transferred as Bamra tehsildar on July 1, 2025.

In a separate case, Vigilance officials arrested Chittaranjan Rout, District Labour Officer of Nayagarh, after he was caught red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 6,000 from a labourer in exchange for issuing 20 labour cards.