Accountant arrested by Vigilance on graft charge

An accountant in power supply company WESCO was arrested by anti-graft vigilance wing for allegedly taking Rs 5,000 bribe from a man to reduce his electricity bill in Balangir district today.
Vigilance sleuths laid a trap and caught Manoranjan Nanda, accountant in the office of the SDO, Electrical, WESCO Utility at Kantabanji red handed while demanding and accepting illegal gratification of Rs 5,000 from complainant Pratik Agarwal, vigilance sources said.
The gist of the case is that, Rs 1,60,000 was outstanding towards electricity charges of the residential house of Agarwal. He applied at grievance redressal forum office, Bolangir for waiving of the dues and the forum waived off Rs 84,000 from the bill, they said.

When he requested the accused to give revised bill after deducting the waived amount of Rs 84,000, Nanda demanded bribe of Rs 8,000 for this purpose, but later agreed to issue bill after receiving Rs 5,000. Thereafter, Agarwal reported the matter to SP, Vigilance, Sambalpur Division.
Accordingly, a trap was laid today and Agarwal met the accused accountant and handed over the bribe money. Nanda accepted the money and kept it in his shirt pocket. The bribe money of Rs 5,000 has been recovered from the possession of Nanda, who was arrested, the sources said.
His residential house at Kantabanji is being searched by vigilance, sources added.