Saswat Singhdeo

Bhubaneswar: Tushima Mishra, wife of suspended IAS officer Bijay Ketan Upadhyay who was arrested on charges of accepting bribe, opened up on the arrest of her husband on Friday.

At a press conference, Mishra raised questions on Bijay Ketan’s midnight arrest and public prosecutor's statement that granting her husband bail would send a wrong message.

"Public prosecutor Hemant Kumar Swain had said that releasing my husband will send across a bad message. I want to ask him if my husband is a terrorist or a rapist that if he gets bail, it will send a bad message? Public prosecutor had said that let him enjoy the New Year in jail," said Tushima.

Hinting that a conflict between Odia and non-Odia IAS officers could be the reason behind her husband’s arrest, she said "Being a government doctor myself I have heard people saying that Odia IAS officers are not getting good postings and non Odia officers are being posted in good departments."

Speaking about the raid at their house, Tushima said, "Vigilance department sleuths were not behaving properly. They were asking about the price of clothes and toys used by my kids.”

She further alleged, “Vigilance department initially said that they caught my husband red handed while taking Rs 1 lakh as bribe but they later retracted from the statement."

As per reports, the Special Vigilance court on Monday rejected the bail plea of Bijay Ketan, who was arrested on December 30 on charges of taking bribe.

Upadhyaya, a 2009-batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, was serving as the Director of Horticulture department in Odisha. He had secured all India rank five in the 2008 Civil Services examination.

https://youtu.be/JXaoGfMKbfQ

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