India, Jan. 5 -- The Odisha Vigilance on Monday arrested an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) and a Junior Engineer (JE) of the Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 60,000 from a contractor in Mayurbhanj district.

The accused officials have been identified as Harekrushna Sing, Assistant Executive Engineer, and Subrat Mohanty, Junior Engineer.

Bribe linked to release of pending bills According to the Vigilance, the two officials had demanded a bribe for releasing pending bills of work already executed by the contractor. The contractor had completed lift irrigation projects worth around Rs 25 lakh, but bills amounting to about Rs 5 lakh were allegedly withheld. The officials had also not ...