Odisha Human Rights body asks vigilance cop to pay ₹5 lakh for framing official in graft case

The junior engineer moved the Odisha Human Rights Commission alleging he was framed in a false case by Himanshu Mishra, the former DSP of vigilance.

Holding a former deputy SP of the state vigilance department guilty of framing a junior engineer in a fake bribery case, the Odisha Human Rights Commission has asked the state government to recover ₹5 lakh from the retired vigilance officer and pay it to the engineer.

On March 24, 2017, Rajendra Mishra was arrested by the vigilance over allegations of demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹25,000 from a contractor to facilitate an official work. He was then suspended from service.(GETTY IMAGES.)

In his order, OHRC chairperson justice BP Das recommended that Himansu Sekhar Mishra, the former deputy SP of the vigilance department in Dhenkanal district pay ₹5 lakh to former junior engineer of Kamakhyanagar Notified Area Council Rajendra Prasad Mishra for framing the latter in a false vigilance case.

On March 24, 2017, Rajendra Mishra was arrested by the vigilance over allegations of demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹25,000 from a contractor to facilitate an official work. He was then suspended from service.

The junior engineer then moved the Odisha Human Rights Commission alleging he was framed in a false case by Himanshu Mishra, the former DSP of vigilance. He alleged that he was framed as he did not allow the contractor to execute some work in a sub-standard manner under his supervision. He alleged that the contractor conspired with the vigilance staff including the deputy SP and laid a trap.

The former junior engineer submitted the CCTV footage of his office room in which a vigilance constable was seen keeping a bundle of ₹25,000 in his left side drawer at around 6.00 pm. When the engineer raised allegations of being framed, a DIG of vigilance conducted an inquiry and recommended departmental action against the DSP and others involved in the case.

The OHRC chairperson said that after going through the report submitted by the DIG of Vigilance, recording statements of all the accused in the case and watching the CCTV footage, it was clear that the case against the junior engineer was a fake one.

As the illegal and stage managed trap has tarred the junior engineer’s dignity and reputation, the commission said the victim is entitled to get compensation. The human rights panel also recommended that the contractor be black-listed and marked ineligible from getting any government contract in future.

The commission, however, said the junior engineer can donate the compensation amount to the District Red Cross Fund of Dhenkanal if he wishes.

Though Odisha claims to be turning aggressive against corrupt officials, its record in conviction is such cases is quite poor. In 2018, the department could get conviction in about 51 per cent of vigilance cases while in 2017 it was 47 per cent. The department is yet to release its conviction rate in 2019. It had also a high pendency at the investigation stage. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its report for 2017 said that over 92 per cent of vigilance cases were pending for investigation in 2017.