Berhampur: Vigilance sleuths on Thursday arrested the chief district agriculture officer (CDAO), Ganjam, for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 15,000 from a person to facilitate release of his subsidy amount under Mukhya Mantri Krishi Udyog Yojana (MKUY).The vigilance sleuths caught the accused, Byomkesh Mishra, red-handed here while he was accepting the bribe amount from the beneficiary on Wednesday evening, said vigilance SP (Berhampur) Pradeep Pradhan here on Thursday. Mishra is the first Class 1 govt officer arrested in a trap case in Berhampur vigilance division this year, sources said.The complainant, also a beneficiary under the scheme, has applied to get the subsidy amount under the scheme since 2023. He had requested Mishra, after he joined as CDAO (in-charge) two months ago, to process his file. According to the guideline, a beneficiary is entitled to get 50% of the invested amount as subsidy. The complainant will get around Rs 20 lakh for his project under the scheme.Despite several requests made by the beneficiary, the accused was not processing the file. Being aggrieved, the beneficiary reported the matter to vigilance authorities, alleging harassment by the accused, he said. As per the prior plan, a vigilance team was deployed and caught him red-handed while accepting the bribe. The entire bribe money was seized, he said.The SP said following the trap, raids were conducted at his three locations, including his office chamber here, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, to unearth his ill-gotten properties, if any. The details of findings of his properties in the search have not been calculated, he said.
