The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday arrested a senior official of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) for accepting a bribe of ₹20,000.
The accused, Akhilesh Kumar, is the chief manager (mining) of MCL’s Basundhara area in Sundargarh district.
The CBI has started interrogating the officer at its regional office in Bhubaneswar.
Sources said Kumar was allegedly demanding money from displaced people to facilitate the release of compensation towards land acquisition. One of them complained to the CBI. Under existing norms, MCL is mandated to compensate individuals whose land is acquired for coal mining projects.
In a statement, the CBI said: “It was alleged that the accused chief manager (mining), MCL, demanded a bribe of ₹30,000 from the complainant for facilitating the release of compensation fund amount of ₹11,37,595 in favour of the relative of the complainant, the beneficiary, payable in connection with acquisition of land. After negotiation, the accused agreed to accept bribe of ₹20,000 from the complainant.”
Sources added that the complainant had earlier paid ₹10,000 but the officer allegedly sought an additional ₹20,000 to release the compensation. CBI laid a trap and caught Kumar on Wednesday night while accepting the second instalment.
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Additional reporting by PTI