According to sources, the Excise department had received reliable information about production and trade of country liquor at Dalua village under Khuntuni police station in the district. A team of Excise officials led by superintendent Debasih Patel went to the village for a raid.

The Excise officials not only broke the unit but also arrested some persons engaged in liquor production. As they were going to take the arrested person in their vehicle, the family members of the workers along with villagers including women arrived at the spot.

The villagers not only obstructed the Excise officials from taking the arrested persons but also attacked them and damaged their vehicle. They also detained the superintendent.

On being informed, a team from Khuntuni police station rushed to the village and released the Excise officials. Later, the Excise officials filed a complaint with the police against the villagers.

In a similar incident on July 28, 2023, the Excise officials were attacked in the same village during a raid. The police arrested the main accused in the incident, Rabindra Swain, on the day.

The Vigilance officials had arrested Banchhanidhi Satpathy, former Revenue Inspector, Raisuan Circle under Sadar block of the district while accepting bribe from a complainant for demarcation of his land. Following investigation, the Vigilance had filed chargesheet in the court.

The Special Judge, Vigilance, Keonjhar convicted Satpathy in the case and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 4 years and imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 under Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988. In default of payment of fine, he has to undergo further RI for 2 months.

The court further sentenced him to undergo RI for 3 years and imposed fine of Rs 2,000 for the offence under Section 7 of PC Act, 1988. In default of payment of fine, he has to undergo further RI for 2 months. Both sentences will run concurrently.

Odisha Vigilance will move the competent authority for stoppage of pension of Satpathy following his conviction.

As per reports, over five lakh plants were destroyed during the joint operation carried out by the mobile unit of Mayurbhanj excise division including district-level officials and those from Jashipur and Rairangpur at Saruda village of Astakuan panchayat on Friday night.

Official sources said opium poppy cultivation over at least 15 acres of land was destroyed. The market value of the destroyed crops is estimated at around Rs 10.5 crore.

This was the third time in the last two months that a poppy plantation has been found and destroyed by the forest department.

Earlier, excise officials had carried out raids at seven places in the national park where nearly 6.95 lakh plants worth over Rs 13 crore were burnt. Over 30 acre of forest land have been raided so far, they said.

Opium poppy plantations worth around Rs 28 crore have been found and destroyed in Similipal forests so far.

Officials said that opium poppy farming has been going on in the sanctuary over the years while many locals are under the impression that they are growing poppy seeds.

The accused, identified as Heblet Barla, is posted at Muribahal Tahasil of Balangir. He was caught while accepting bribe of Rs.10,000/- as first instalment of totall demand of Rs 20,000/- from a complainant for issuance of ROR (Land Patta) in his favour in a mutation case.

The complainant had been requesting accused Barla to process his mutation case for a long time, as the case had been registered in the year 2019. However, Barla was refusing to do the work and demanding bribe of Rs.20,000/- to do the same.

Finding no other way, the complainant informed the Vigilance and the anti-corruption agency made a plan and nabbed the accused while accepting Rs.10,000/- as 1st installment.

The entire tainted bribe money has been recovered from the exclusive possession of Barla and seized, official sources said.

Following the successful trap, simultaneous searches are going on at two locations of Barla from Disproportionate Assets angle.

In this connection, a case has been registered and investigation is in progress.

According to sources, the accused had been raping her own daughter for past some days. He continued to sexually exploit despite being warned by the mother. Unable to bear the atrocity and the shame, the girl allegedly took the extreme step on Saturday night.

The Konark police have registered an unnatural death case in the matter. “We have registered a UD case after the IIC of Gop police station forwarded the matter to us. Following the inquest, the body has been sent to Puri for postmortem,” said Konark police station IIC Purnachandra Sethi.

However, the family is yet to lodge any formal complaint against the father. “Appropriate action will be taken after a proper investigation. The girl’s father was not home during the on-site inspection. He is reportedly missing since his daughter’s demise,” the IIC added.

According to a Vigilance release, he was found in possession of disproportionate assets, including 2 high-value flats and 2 commercial shopping outlets in Bhubaneswar, and had paid Rs 2.23 crore to realtors as advance for purchasing two more flats in upscale areas of Bhubaneswar and Bengaluru city. Deposits over Rs.3.90 crore, gold weighing 590 grams, Rs 1.16 in cash were also seized during the raid on Thursday, for which he could not account for satisfactorily.

Mohapatra will be produced before the court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar, it added.

If the amount of the disproportionate assets (DA) is found to be over Rs 15 crore, it could be the highest ever haul in the state, sources said.

Among Mohapatra’s high valued properties are a 3,000 sqft flat worth Rs 1 crore in a prime apartment at Pahala, two commercial shopping outlets worth over Rs 2 crore in a swanky mall at Kalpana Square, and a 3-BHK flat worth Rs 1 crore at Kalpana Square. While Rs 1.35 crore advance was paid to a realtor for purchasing a 5-BHK flat at Kalarahanga, Rs 88 lakh advance payment was made for a flat in Bengaluru.

Mohapatra had joined he transport department as an electrical engineer on September 9, 1991. He was promoted to the rank of junior motor vehicle inspector (MVI) in 2014 and worked in Balasore, Koraput, Bargarh and Gajpati districts. In 2021, he was promoted to the rank of MVI and posted at Bhubaneswar. Mohapatra has been working as RTO, Boudh, since May 1, 2022.

According to Kushal Biswas, honorary wildlife warden, Khurda, the Forest department received reliable information on Saturday night that two persons had kept the parrot chicks for sale in Nuapola under Jagatsinghpur Sadar block of the district.

On the direction of Cuttack Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), a team of Forest officials was formed to rescue the parrots. The team conducted a raid on the house of the two persons in Nuapola early Sunday morning.

“During the raid, the Forest officials found 72 parrot chicks kept in three separate boxes in the house. They also apprehended the two persons. The detained persons have admitted that they had kept the parrots for sale,” Biswal said.

Stating that possession, sale and trade of parrots is prohibited under Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act-2022, he said the birds will be released at a safe habitation soon.

The two persons have been kept in Jagatsinghpur Forest Range office for questioning. Efforts are on to ascertain the source of procurement of parrots and involvement of other persons in the illegal trade.

A Vigilance release said that the traffic inspector failed to provide a satisfactory account for the cash recovered from him.

Subsequently, raids were carried out at his rented house at Talcher in Angul district and house at Astarang in Puri district, which is continuing, to ascertain whether he had accumulated assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. While Rs 3.09 lakh in cash and 336 gm gold were found at his Talcher residence, another Rs 10 lakh was recovered from Astarang.

The total cash seizure has been put at around Rs 24.24 lakh.

The release further said that searches are also on at his brother’s house at Paradip. The officer is also being questioned to ascertain the sources of the cash recovered so far.

According to sources, the ATMs of Axis Bank at Tudigadia Bazaar post office under Khaira police limits and Punjab National Bank at Mangalpur under Soro police station limits was cut open using gas cutters. Around Rs 20 lakh cash was stolen from the ATM at Tudigadia by at least 6 robbers, who came in a four-wheeler. They also bombed the vending machine before fleeing.

Sources further said that Rs 12 lakh was filled in the ATM at Mangalpur on Tuesday. It is suspected that the same group of robbers looted two ATMs one after the other.

Police has launched an investigation and Soro IIC Pravash Sekhar Mishra examining footage of nearby CCTV camera to identify the culprits, who are suspected to be natives of Jharkhand.

According to sources, all the three, identified as Raisen Murmu, his wife Pana Murmu and brother Chandramohan of Nayarangamatia village within Udala police limits in the district had gone to attend Jahira Puja organised by the villagers.

While the puja was going on, Raisen had gone to get a chicken to be used in sacrificial ritual of the puja. As he got late in fetching the chicken, the villagers including his wife and brother were upset.

On Raisen’s arrival, they questioned him over the delay. However, the puja continued after he explained about the delay. But Chandramohan and Pana continued to engage in argument.

Agitated over it, Raisen accused his wife of supporting his brother because of her affair with him. Enraged over it, Pana picked up a wooden plank and hit him. Raisen sustained critical injury on the head and died on the spot.

On being informed, a team from Udala police station went to the village and arrested Pana and Chandramohan. They sent Raisen’s body for post-mortem and started investigation after registering a case.