india

Updated: Oct 06, 2019 00:15 IST

A day after forcing five of the “most corrupt officials” in Odisha to retire, the state government on Saturday suspended an assistant sub-inspector of police who had asked for bribe of eggs and cash from a poultry trader in the Bolangir district.

Bolangir SP Madkar Sandeep Sampat suspended sub inspector Jagadish Mahanand of Saintala police station after an investigation under Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s ‘Mo Sarkar’ programme revealed the cop had asked for a bribe of eggs, broiler chicken and cash from poultry dealer Asish Kumar Sahoo.

Sahoo had a minor altercation with his neighbour on September 12 following which both filed counter FIRs at Saintalaa police station. Assistant sub-inspector Mahanand asked Sahoo for a bribe to solve the case after he was called to the police station.

“He asked for some cash and eggs to dispose the case in my favour. I did not know what to do,” Sahoo told Bolangir SP a few days after the citizen-centric feedback system of ‘Mo Sarkar’ took off on October 1. The SP said Sahoo’s number was randomly picked up by the ‘Mo Sarkar’ system and he was asked about his experience at the police station.

“When he narrated his experience of the ASI demanding a bribe from him, we conducted a probe and found it true. Basing on our investigation, the police official was suspended,” said the SP.

On October 1, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had launched ‘Mo Sarkar’ feedback system and spoken to nine persons about their experience in police stations and hospitals in the State. Under the ‘Mo Sarkar’ system, phone numbers of people coming to police stations and hospitals get registered in a central database and a SMS sent to them in 24 hours. If they don’t get SMS within 24 hours, they have to make a missed call to 14545 and get themselves registered. Once the numbers are registered, the chief minister, ministers and senior officials can call random numbers for feedback on quality of service received in government offices.