ELURU: A forest beat officer was caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths while accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a fisherman at RR Peta here on Thursday. He was arrested and will be produced before an Anti-corruption Bureau court in Vijayawada soon.Katuboina Srikanth demanded Rs 50,000 from Meduri Venkateswara Rao of Dosapadu to give permission for fishing. The officer allegedly threatened to file false cases against the farmer if he refused to pay. “Unable to bear the harassment, Rao approached us,” ACB DSP Gopalakrishna told mediapersons.
Sleuths instructed Rao to meet Srikanth at the steel shop along Pattebada Road with the amount and swooped down on the erring official while he was accepting the sum. Srikanth got the job following the death of his father Satyam who worked in the Forest Department as a supernumerary. He previously worked at Kannapuram in Koyyalagudem mandal -- the place where he hails from -- and Polavaram mandal. He had been working at Dosapadu since 2016.
He allegedly had been extorting money from fishermen who would go fishing in Kolleru lake.Rao told mediapersons that over the last two years, Srikanth had been demanding huge sums of money from fishermen to be allowed to fish in Kolleru lake. Rao who had previously paid money to the officer said he now demands as much as Rs 50,000. “It’s only after his harassment became unbearable that I decided to approach ACB officials,” he said.