Cop lands in vigilance net for 'taking bribe'

Bhubaneswar: Principal of Police Training School (PTS) in Nayagarh Binod Das, an additional SP-ranked officer, was on Sunday arrested on charges of accepting bribe of Rs 75,000 from a subordinate staffer. Das was former supervising officer of chief minister Naveen Patnaik's cavalcade and suspended after the egg attack on the CM's car last year.
"We caught Das red-handed with the money at his official residence in Nayagarh.He demanded the bribe from Ramakrushna Mishra, an assistant sub-inspector, who was in-charge of the PTS's mess for trainee personnel of Odisha Industrial Security Force," director general (vigilance) R P Sharma told TOI.
"Mishra alleged that Das had earlier taken Rs 25,000 from him. We laid the trap after receiving complaint from Mishra that Das was demanding Rs 75,000 more," Sharma added.
Mishra alleged that Das demanded commission from the monthly payment of the trainee cops towards their food and shelter in the mess. Around 340 trainee cops are paying mess charges of Rs 2,500 per month each.
Soon after his arrest, the vigilance raided his residences in Nayagarh and Bhubaneswar on charges of amassing ill-gotten assets. "We strongly suspect he possessed assets disproportionate to his known source of income," Sharma said.
Recently, the state government initiated disciplinary proceedings against Das for alleged misconduct and dereliction of duty, which resulted in Naveen's security breach last year.
A group of miscreants, mostly Youth Congress workers, allegedly hurled eggs on Naveen's car in front of Keshari Talkies here when he was on his way to attend a function at Utkal University on February 19, 2015.
Das, who was suspended on March 2, 2015, was reinstated in PTS recently.