Jajpur, Aug 18: Odisha Vigilance continues to headline the state affairs as they arrested Binay Kumar Tripathy, Assistant Commissioner of CT & GST Enforcement Unit here.

Tripathy, along with his two private associates -- Jyoti Pattnaik and Mohammed Golam Sad, has been arrested Sunday on charges of bribery and tax evasion.

Notably, a raid had been conducted Saturday at Tripathy's properties "on the allegation of misappropriation of govt money." After getting the complaint, the state vigilance conducted raids at various properties, including his residence and office, related to Tripathy in Bhubaneswar, Jajpur, Khorda and Kendrapara.

The state vigilance has informed about the raid in a social media post. "Today, on the allegation of misappropriation of govt money by Sri Binay Bhusan Tripathy, CT & GST Assistant Commissioner, Enforcement, Jajpur, by demanding bribe from goods vehicles in lieu of tax/fines, #Odisha #Vigilance is conducting searches at locations of Shri Tripathy," Odisha Vigilance had wrote on their 'X' handle Saturday.

On May 7 this year, Tripathy intercepted and detained a goods vehicle carrying a scrap weight of about 22,240 kgs worth Rs 8,89,600 at Revana in Jajpur. He then reportedly contacted the owner of the goods and demanded Rs 2,50,000 to release the vehicle.

Tripathy allegedly sold the entire scrap to another scrap dealer when the bribe demand was not met. He then realized the nominal tax and misappropriated the balance amount of Rs 5,85,356.

Tripathy is alleged to have similarly collected huge bribe amounts from various transporters/suppliers on grounds of evasion of taxes, by flouting rules and norms of GST.

Investigations revealed that Tripathy had been channeling bribes into various bank accounts belong to his family members, later converting them into fixed deposits. 

One such account was opened in the name of Tripathy's father, who was unaware of these activities. He has deposited approximately Rs 28 lakh in nine transactions in the last 10 months.

Read More: Odisha News