Odisha Revenue Assistant Arrested for Bribery in Land Approval Case

Jajpur, September 25 (Daily Kiran) : Officials from the Odisha Vigilance team arrested a junior revenue assistant (JRA) in Jajpur on Friday for accepting a bribe to process a land purchase approval. The accused, identified as Prasanna Kumar Sahani, is currently stationed at the sub-collector's office in Jajpur. According to the Vigilance officials, the complainant had submitted a request on November 29, 2025, to obtain legal approval for purchasing 16 decimals of land from a Scheduled Caste (SC) owner in his mother’s name.State regulations mandate that prior approval from the relevant revenue officer is necessary for land purchases involving individuals from SC or Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. Sahani allegedly delayed processing the file without valid reasons. After multiple follow-ups, he demanded a bribe of ₹48,000, charging ₹3,000 for each decimal of land. When the applicant expressed his inability to pay that amount, Sahani reduced his demand to ₹40,000. Frustrated by the ongoing demands, the applicant filed a formal complaint with the anti-corruption agency.Acting on the complaint, the Vigilance team set up a trap on September 25. Sahani was caught red-handed in his office while demanding and accepting the bribe of ₹40,000 in cash. Authorities recovered the entire bribe amount in the presence of independent witnesses. A chemical hand-wash test conducted on Sahani also returned a positive result for the presence of bribe money. Following the trap, Vigilance teams simultaneously raided Sahani's office chamber and his residence in Gobindapur, located within the jurisdiction of Jajpur Sadar police.A case has been registered at the Cuttack Vigilance police station under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.