Cuffs on Odisha excise cop for Rs 6 lakh ‘ill-gotten’ money

BHUBANESWAR: The state vigilance sleuths on Saturday arrested Nina Beura, excise superintendent (Rayagada), for possession of unaccounted cash of Rs 6 lakh. It was found in her car, which was intercepted near Khurda, while she was on her way to Bhubaneswar from Rayagada.
Nina is the third woman officer to be caught by the anti-corruption watchdog in a week.
Vigilance sleuths said her husband, inspector-in-charge at Mahanga police station, has been asked to join the probe.But he was neither found in his office nor at his residence at the time of her arrest.
Nina’s arrest coincides with that of inspector (vigilance) Manasi Jena, who was detained by the sleuths on Friday on charges of taking Rs 10 lakh bribe through one Mukesh Sahu. They were allegedly trying to extort a government officer, whose identity has not been disclosed, to close a petition against him.
The vigilance said in case of Manasi, it was the highest-ever bribe money seized from any officer.
In cases involving the arrested vigilance inspector and woman excise superintendent, the director (vigilance) Y K Jethwa said, “The vigilance is committed to taking strong action against corrupt practices of government functionaries, including its own.”
A week ago, woman additional tehsildar (Kuchinda) Sarada Maharana was arrested in Sambalpur while accepting a bribe of Rs 1.2 lakh to reduce the penalty to free a complainant’s seized vehicle.