Fame to shame—Odisha civil services topper ‘caught taking Rs 15,000 bribe’

2019 topper Aswini Kumar Panda, posted as Tehsildar in Jajpur district, allegedly sought bribe & had his driver collect it from a man for giving approval for land mutation, conversion.

Odisha Administrative Services officer Aswini Kumar Panda, now in custody for taking a bribe | By special arrangement

New Delhi: Once lauded as an inspiration for civil services aspirants in Odisha, the topper of the Odisha Administrative Service examination 2019, Aswini Kumar Panda, was arrested Friday on charges of taking a bribe of Rs 15,000.

From the state’s Jajpur district, Panda had made headlines in 2021 when he topped the examination held in 2019. But after his arrest by the state’s Vigilance Department, his fame has turned to notoriety.

Posted as a Tehsildar in Bamra block in Sambalpur district, Panda allegedly asked the complainant, who had applied for a plot of land to be mutated (updation of owner details in records) and converted from agricultural to homestead land, for Rs 15,000 as bribe.

In a statement, the Vigilance Department said the complainant had been requesting Panda for approval for a month. Panda initially asked for Rs 20,000, which he later negotiated to Rs 15,000.

“When the complainant expressed his inability to pay such a huge amount as bribe, Sri Panda, Tehsildar, reduced the bribe amount to Rs 15,000 and threatened to not allow the conversion in mutation case otherwise. Left with no other option, the complainant approached the Vigilance authorities,” the Vigilance Department said.

“A trap was laid on 12.09.2025, wherein the accused Sri Aswini Kumar Panda, OAS, Tehsildar was nabbed by the team of Odisha Vigilance in his office room for demanding and taking undue advantage (bribe) of Rs 15,000 from the complainant through his office driver Sri P. Praveen Kumar,” the department said in a statement Friday.

Following the recovery of the bribe amount from his office, the department carried out searches at his office, his residential premises in Bamra, as well as his family residence in Bhubaneswar and found Rs 4.73 lakh.

He was posted as a Tehsildar in Bamra since July, before which he was posted in the same capacity in Mayurbhanj district. Having topped the state civil service exam in 2019 and attracted a lot of attention, Panda joined the state civil service as a Training Reserve Officer (TRO) in the office of the Balasore Collector.

(Edited by Viny Mishra)