Big action against IAS Dhiman Chakma, days after being caught accepting Rs 10 lakh bribe: 'He shall not...'

IAS officer and Dharamgarh Sub-Collector Dhiman Chakma has been suspended with immediate effect. He was caught red-handed by Odisha Vigilance sleuths while taking Rs 10 Lakh bribe. A subsequent raid uncovered additional Rs 47 lakhs in unexplained cash at his home. The businessman, who filed a complaint against Chakma, alleged that the IAS officer threatened to act against his business if he did not pay him the amount demanded.

"It is further ordered that during the period of suspension, the headquarters of Shri Chakma, IAS is fixed at the GA&PG Department, Government of Odisha, Bhubaneswar and he shall not leave the said headquarters without prior permission of the undersigned," an official letter reads.

"Chakma called the complainant to his official government residence at Dharamgarh, received the bribe amount and kept the same inside his table drawer", news agency PTI quoted the vigilance department as saying. Following the IAS officer's arrest and the cash recovery from his house, a case has been registered against him under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.

A 2021-batch IAS officer from Tripura, Chakma, had cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination not once but twice, becoming a role model for IAS aspirants from the northeast. With government permission, he made extra efforts to educate youth and government servants through online teaching.

He first cleared the UPSC Civil Services Exam in 2019, securing a rank of 722, and was selected for the Indian Forest Service (IFS). In 2020, he appeared again for the exam, this time securing 482nd rank, and joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He was allocated the Odisha cadre.

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