Bribery cases tarnish names of police in Telangana

Hyderabad: The police is facing criticism over lower-rank officials getting caught indulging in corrupt and unethical practices. Since January, four police officials of sub-inspector and inspector rank have been caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau for demanding and taking bribes from accused people.

Acting on information that government officials working in various departments were demanding bribes, ACB sleuths laid traps and apprehended 22 public servants, among which four were policemen.

In the past 10 days, three policemen – two sub-inspectors and one inspector rank officer, working in Cyberabad and Rachakonda police commissionerates – were caught red-handed taking bribe. The three were caught taking bribe from the accused inside a police station. The money was demanded in order to dispose of the case in favour of the accused.

Embarrassed by unethical practices carried out by some of their subordinates, who are found being friendly with the accused instead of with the common public, the police top-brass is chalking out new plans to bring down corruption in the department.

The police department, among the few that received top priority from the state government after Telangana’s formation, has been provided with hundreds of crores of rupees to facilitate policemen with better provisions. Besides, each police station in the three commissionerates – Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda – are given Rs 75,000 every month for their maintenance, which does not even have an account of the expenses.

During training at the state police academy, policemen of all ranks are also taught ethics and moral values apart from technical subjects of investigation, but incidents of police personnel taking bribe from the accused raises doubts on the quality of training.

Responding to a query, a senior police official said: “The recent incidents are unfortunate. Despite being trained to act ethically and morally, some officials are indulging in corrupt practices. It is defaming the department. Such black sheep will be dealt with an iron hand and initiatives will be taken to bring down corruption.

Hayathnagar detective inspector Ch. Jithender Reddy was caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths when he demanded and accepted a bribe of Rs 30,000 on Monday.

According to ACB, Ch Jithender Reddy, who was probing a case against one Nagaraju, had demanded Rs 30,000 from his relative Rekha Sagar in order to settle the issue between another party.

Based on a complaint, the detective inspector nabbed Jithender red-handed at Hayathnagar police station while he was accepting the bribe.

The accused officer has been arrested and produced before the Special Judge for SPE and ACB cases, Hyderabad, said the ACB in a note.