Hyderabad: In a first in the state, Telangana’s graft investigating agency, the Anti Corruption Bureau has booked two gazette rank officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act (amended) 2018.
Both accused will be sentenced by an ACB special court to a minimum of 3 years of rigorous punishment, once proved guilty. Earlier, under the old act the minimum conviction period was one year. The Act was revised in 2018.
Last Monday, the ACB booked Superintendent Engineer of TS Urban Finance Development Corporation S. Praveen Chandra for accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from the complainant in his office premises of Hyderabad. The bribe bid was made to release funds for a project that was carried out by the complainant (a contractor) in 2010.
The second person to be booked was G. Narsi Reddy, a Mandal Parishad Development Officer Choutuppal, for accepting a bribe of Rs 70,000.
On Wednesday, G. Narsi Reddy, a Mandal Parishad Development Officer Choutuppal was caught red-handed in his office based on a tip-off by complainant Dachepalli Chandra Babu, who had approached Narsi Reddy for an approval for construction.
Sources told this newspaper, “All DA cases will be booked under Section 13 of the PC Act and other cases under section 7 (A). However, in both the offences (when proved guilty) the minimum punishment will be of 3 years and a maximum of 7 years. According to the Act, the ACB in case of a spot arrest need not take necessary permission from the competent authority.
In the present system, it takes over 2 years for the investigating agency to prove the person guilty. The ACB following the arrest would have to file a chargesheet after the investigation is completed. Then it would have to submit a prosecution appeal before the parent department in which the accused served. After the approval is granted, the court will order prosecution, which will now be of a minimum 3 years.
