Odisha engineer dismissed for giving false evidence

Bhubaneswar: Cracking the whip against hostile witnesses, Odisha government has dismissed an Assistant Engineer of RWSS section at Bijepur in Bargarh district for giving false evidence during a trial to help an accused in a Vigilance case.

Sources said the case was registered in Sambalpur where Upendra Bhanja Naik while serving as Junior Engineer in Rural Water Supply and Sanitation section at Sohela in Bargarh had been requisitioned as an official witness to the Vigilance trap against accused Anand Saraf, the then senior clerk in the office of Executive Engineer, West Electrical Division, Bargarh.

Although Naik had witnessed the transaction of bribe, during trial, he resiled from his earlier statements and deposed false evidence to help the accused leading to acquittal in the case.