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Sambalpur: On Friday, the vigilance team caught Ashwini Kumar Panda, the Tehsildar of Bamda in Sambalpur district of Odisha, red handed while taking bribe. He was accused of demanding a bribe of Rs 20,000 from a farmer in exchange for mutation of land.
The complainant informed the vigilance about this, after which the vigilance caught the Tehsildar taking a bribe of Rs 15,000 through his driver P. Praveen Kumar. Both have been taken into custody and the entire bribe money has been recovered.
Panda was once an inspiration for the youth
The story of 29-year-old Ashwini Panda was once an inspiration for the youth. He had passed the Odisha Civil Service Examination in the first attempt without any coaching and became a Tehsildar. But now a serious allegation of corruption has been leveled against him.
Ashwini is a resident of Khetarpal village of Dharamshala block of Jajpur district of Odisha. He did his schooling from Jankalyan High School and then did Plus Two in Science from Ravenshaw University. After this, in 2015, he did B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from a private college in Brahmapur.
After engineering, he went to Delhi where he worked in a private company for three years. In 2018, he left the job and returned to Odisha and started preparing for a government job. First he gave the Assistant Section Officer i.e. ASO exam but missed it by just 0.5 marks. Then he decided that he would give the Odisha Civil Services exam.
The preliminary examination of 2019 was held in March, but the mains exam was delayed due to the Corona epidemic. Despite this, Ashwini succeeded and dreamed of becoming an honest and hardworking officer.
Raid was also done at home, Rs 4.73 lakh cash recovered
After being caught, vigilance officials raided Ashwini Panda’s house, from where Rs 4.73 lakh cash was recovered. Investigation is going on about where this money came from. The officer whose story was once an example of “hard work and dedication” has now been caught taking bribe. There is deep resentment on social media and among the common people regarding this incident. People are raising the question that if even the toppers indulge in corruption, then whom should we trust?
