Woman official in Hyderabad caught while taking Rs 4 lakh bribe

Hyderabad, Sep 9 (IANS) A woman Town Planning officer in Hyderabad was caught red-handed on Tuesday while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 4 lakh to do an official favour.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) caught Maniharika, a town planning officer in the Narsingi municipal office, when she was accepting the bribe.

She had demanded Rs 10 lakh bribe from one Vinod to clear his application under the Land Regularisation Scheme (LRS) and was caught accepting Rs 4 lakh.

Vinod had lodged a complaint with the ACB, which laid a trap and caught the officer red-handed.

A team of ACB officials led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Sridhar was conducting searches at the municipal office. The officials were looking into the files cleared by Maniharika in the past.

Several women officials have been caught red-handed while taking bribes by the ACB in recent times.

On September 4, M. Charitha Reddy, District Fisheries Officer in the office of District Collectorate, Nalgonda, was caught demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs 20,000 to give approval to enlist new members in the Fisheries Co-Operative Society of the complainant.

Chintakindi Lalitha, Tahsildar and Kota Ravi, Mandal Surveyor, Amangal Mandal, Ranga Reddy District, were caught demanding Rs 1 lakh and accepting Rs 50,000 from the complainant to complete the land registration and to correct typographical mistakes in the land records pertaining to the land of the complainant's grandmother.

The ACB on August 12 caught K. Sujatha, Junior Assistant in the office of District Collector, Vikarabad for demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs 15,000 from the complainant to process the documents of the complainant at Vikarabad Collector's Office and to dispatch the copy of Collector's order to the Nawabpet Tahsildar office for inclusion of the name of complainant's mother in respect of two acres of land allotted to her by the government.

In June, Paka Sukanya, Assistant Labour Officer in the office of the Assistant Labour, Bellampalli, Mancherial district and her private assistant, Mokinepalli Rajeshwari, were caught demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs 30,000 from the complainant for processing the natural death claim and funeral charges file, pertaining to the complainant's husband and forwarding the same to the higher authorities for sanction.

--IANS

ms/uk