The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths apprehended a village revenue officer (VRO) while he was accepting a bribe of Rs.45000 from an individual for issuing pattadar passbook in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.
N Venkatesh, is the VRO of Mallanuru village in Kuppam mandal.Venkatesh demanded a bribe from the complainant, K Mani, a farmer, to issue pattadar passbook after mutation of his agricultural land.
Vexed by the constant harassment by Venkatesh, Mani lodged a complaint with the ACB following which, the sleuths from Tirupati ACB laid the trap.On Wednesday morning, the VRO went to Mallanuru village secretariat and collected Rs 45000 as bribe from him.The sleuths caught him as soon as the money was taken from the complainant.
Earlier on May 8, the ACB caught two officers red-handed while they were taking bribes at different places.
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.
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.