Hyderabad, February 05: In a major catch, a deputy collector and a senior assistant in the Hyderabad district collectorate were trapped by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials today when they took bribe to regularise a plot at Banjara Hills.
Deputy collector R Satyanarayana, who is also the law officer, and senior assistant Mohan Rao were arrested at 6 pm on the office premises when they allegedly took Rs 3 lakh as bribe in first instalment from the plot owner.
“The land-owner approached the deputy collector for regularising his plot at Banjara Hills. The two officials demanded Rs 12 lakh from him, Rs 10 lakh for the deputy collector and Rs 2 lakh for the senior assistant,” ACB joint director K Sampath Kumar said.
The plot owner complained to the ACB who trapped the officials when they took bribe. Of the amount paid by the complainant today, Rs 2 lakh was supposed to be pocketed by Satyanarayana and Rs 1 lakh by Mohan Rao, the ACB official said.
The deputy collector claimed before the media that he had worked honestly all through his tenure and some of his office staff trapped him. “A person, who identified himself as Mansoor, came to my office and asked me about regularisation of the plot. I told him that it (regularisation) cannot happen and he went away after shaking hands with me.
Later, I went into my senior officer’s cabin on some work and by the time I came back the person and the ACB officials were in front of my cabin,” Satyanarayana claimed and suspected that the stranger might have kept the bag in his room when he went to his senior official’s chambers.
Asserting that he had not touched the money bag, Satyanarayana alleged that some of the staff in his own office might have been involved in the `trap’.
ACB officials conducted searches at the houses of the two officials thereafter. “We are searching the houses of the two officials,” Sampath Kumar said.
–Agencies