A Deputy Tahsildar, a Village Revenue Officer and an assistant engineer of the Telangana Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL) were caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) while allegedly accepting bribes in two separate cases on Thursday. Amanaganti Sandeep Kumar Reddy, Deputy Tahsildar, Keesara mandal, Medchal Malkajgiri district, Village Revenue Officer (VRO) Nannuri Vijay Kumar Reddy and a private person, Kavali Balakrishna, were caught in an ACB trap for allegedly demanding ₹5 lakh.
The ACB said in a press release that the Deputy Tahsildar demanded ₹5 lakh and accepted ₹2.5 lakh from the complainant through Balakrishna to remove agricultural properties belonging to a complainant’s family from the prohibited list. The anti-graft agency said the bribe was sought for processing and completing the work related to removing agricultural properties registered in the names of the complainant’s mother and other family members from the prohibited list under Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908.
On the direction of Deputy Tahsildar, VRO Vijay Kumar Reddy allegedly instigated Balakrishna to receive the bribe amount from the complainant. The ACB officials caught Balakrishna while accepting ₹2.5 lakh. The tainted amount was recovered from his possession at his instance. The ACB stated that the two revenue officials had acted improperly and dishonestly to obtain an undue advantage.
The Deputy Tahsildar, the VRO and Balakrishna were produced before the Principal Special Judge for SPE and ACB cases at Nampally for judicial remand. In another case, an assistant engineer of the Telangana Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL) was caught by the ACB while allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹ 1.2 lakh in Hyderabad.
According to ACB officials, the accused, Pandala Sandhaya Rakesh, who works in the Madannapet section under the Santosh Nagar sub-division, demanded the money from a complainant in return for approving an application to install six new electricity meters in place of old, missing meters. The ACB said its City Range-II officials caught the assistant engineer red-handed. The alleged bribe amount was recovered from his possession at his instance. The agency said the officer had acted improperly and dishonestly to obtain an undue advantage.
Telangana: Three govt officials caught while taking bribe
