Hyderabad, April 07: Two government officials were caught taking bribe by the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths in separate incidents.
The village revenue officer (VRO) of Rameshwarapally in Biknoor mandal of Nizamabad, A Narsinga Rao, was caught on Friday morning in the gram panchayat office when he took Rs 4,000 bribe from a person for mutation of agricultural land of the latter to his sister.
In another trap, the tahsildar of Chityal mandal of Warangal district, L Suri Babu, was caught red-handed on Thursday night at his residence when he took Rs 30,000 bribe from a person to issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC) and forwarding the same to the assistant director, mines and geology, Warangal, an official release said on Friday.
Both the officials would be arrested. Meanwhile, a surprise check was conducted on the sub-registrar office of Tadepalligudem in West Godavari district on Thursday.
ACB officials found more than Rs 54,000 in the possession of the sub-registrar, document writers and private agents which was illegally collected from the parties who came for registration of properties. The amount was seized as officials and private persons could not account for it.
Six document writers and three private agents, who were engaged by the SRO officials, were found working in the office. In a related development, an ACB court on Friday convicted a former forest officer in Salur range of Vizianagaram district, C Rameswar Rao, and sentenced him to undergo two year simple imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs 5,000 in a trap case. Rameswar Rao was trapped in 2005 by the ACB officials when he took Rs 2,000 bribe from a person to allow him take firewood from forest, the release said.
–Agencies