Bhubaneswar, June 18 -- A forester stationed in Odisha's Puri was arrested by Odisha Vigilance officials on Thursday while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs. 25,000 from a tractor owner.

The accused official has been identified as Rakesh Kumar Panda. He was stationed as the Forester of Ankui under the Delang Forest Range. He was caught during an operation conducted by a team of Odisha Vigilance.

According to reports, Panda had allegedly intercepted a local tractor owner who was using a forest road to transport excavated earth intended for agricultural field dumping. The forester reportedly issued threats to the tractor owner, asserting that the commercial vehicle would be summarily seized if it continued to utilise the forest transit ro...