ACB catches two officials while accepting bribe

VIJAYAWADA: Officials of the AP anti-corruption bureau (ACB) caught two officers red-handed while they were taking bribes at different places on Monday.

ACB conducted surprise searches on the two officials and it was found that they had assets beyond their income. Complaints about the officers were received through the ACB’s 14400 call centre and the ACB app, leading to the raid on Monday.

In the first case, Eluru in-charge sub-registrar, Bellari Jogeswara Rao, demanded a bribe of ₹10,000 from a person for registration of a gift deed. The sub-registrar Bellari Jogeswara Rao and his personal assistant have been arrested by the ACB.

ACB said the personal assistant was Inelli Krantikumar. He was caught red-handed while taking a bribe of ₹10,000 from the victim in the sub registrar's office, apparently on behalf of the sub-registrar.

The officers seized the documents related to the gift deed and are investigating the case.

In the second case, VRO Kochhara Nageswara Rao demanded a bribe of ₹20,000 from a farmer to regularise the records of his 5.20 acres of agricultural land. The VRO took ₹5000 as the first instalment and demanded payment of another ₹15,000 as the second instalment.

The farmer lodged a complaint with the ACB. Officials caught the VRO red-handed on Monday while he was taking money from the farmer at the MRO office in Acchampeta mandal in the Palnadu district.

The VRO was arrested and produced before the ACB special court, officials said.

In the third incident, ACB officials probed the illegal earnings of Yenti Satyanarayana, a junior assistant in the sanitary department of the medical and health department in GGH, Kakinada district.

ACB officials conducted searches in the houses of Satyanarayana and his brother situated on the main road at  Indrapalem in the Kakinada district and detected his huge possessions of illegal property.

ACB officials said the properties were three G+2 buildings in Kakinada Indrapalem, five vacant lands in Kakinada Indrapalem, 2.65 cents of land in Gangampalem village & Aratlakatta village in Kakinada and Karapa mandals respectively.

About 392.71 grams of gold ornaments, silver articles weighing about 860 grams and an Activa Scooter were also found in his possession. Officials said cash of ₹8,00,000 was found in the house of Yenti Veerababu, brother of the junior assistant. A sum of ₹41,930 cash was found in Satyanarayana’s house, while the family members had a bank balance of ₹4,84,118. The bank deposits in the name of the brother's children were ₹6,50,000. A sum of ₹19,00,000 was found in a locker in the name of brother Yenti Veerababu.

The officials said they found passbooks of various banks from the searched places. These would be investigated. A total of ₹38,76,048 lakh in cash, gold, valuables and documents were seized from the houses of junior assistant Yenti Satyanarayana and his brother.

State DGP Rajendranath Reddy urged everyone to take advantage of the 14400 number of the anti-corruption department and report complaints of harassment or bribe-taking by officials.