Revenue Inspector of Jharapali Circle Nabbed by Odisha Vigilance While Taking  Rs.8K, Bribe

Mangaraj Manas,Mallick

Malkangiri, August 18, 2026: Odisha Vigilance officials on Tuesday apprehended Suraj Bala, Revenue Inspector (RI) of Jharapali Circle under Malkangiri Tahasil, while allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹8,000 from an applicant for facilitating the issuance of a Scheduled Caste (SC) certificate in favour of the applicant’s spouse.

According to Vigilance sources, the complainant was allegedly being harassed and pressured to pay the bribe for submission of the required verification report for issuance of the caste certificate. After receiving the complaint, Odisha Vigilance laid a trap and caught Bala while he was allegedly accepting the bribe in his office chamber.

The entire tainted bribe amount of ₹8,000 was recovered from the possession of the accused Revenue Inspector and subsequently seized by the Vigilance team.

In connection with the trap, Koraput Vigilance Police Station Case No. 19/2026 has been registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, as amended in 2018. Investigation into the allegations is currently underway.

RI Had Earlier Been Caught in Another Vigilance Trap

Vigilance officials further stated that Suraj Bala, RI, had earlier been involved in another trap case, registered as Koraput Vigilance P.S. Case No. 33/2023. In that case, he was allegedly caught accepting a bribe of ₹15,000 for issuing a notice of appearance in connection with an EC case.

The earlier case is presently sub judice.

Further investigation is underway to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the present trap and whether any other persons were involved.