BENGALURU: Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will lose the importance of its existence and necessity for the people if it fails to understand their sufferings, or keeps a tab on officials who indulge in corruption, said the Special Court for Lokayukta cases, rejecting bail applications of revenue inspector Venkatesh C and revenue collector Srinivas N.
Passing the order, Judge KM Radhakrishna said, “The recovery of Rs 3lakh tainted money from the possession of the accused, that too for the simple work of registering a khata, is evident to understand the deep-rooted corruption in the Greater Bengaluru Authority. Officials appear to know no bounds in corrupt activities. They fail to understand the plight and sufferings of people who approach them with the great hope of getting their work done. They have created the inevitability for the public to pay a bribe.”
The accused officials, working in Ward 6, Thanisandra, in Byatarayanapura sub-division in Bengaluru North City Corporation, were caught red-handed, accepting Rs 3lakh as bribe from the complainant for khata transfer.
The complainant, Nyamathulla Khan, a resident of RK Hegde Nagar in the city, filed an online application against the accused for changing the khata of the building he purchased in Thanisandra, after paying the prescribed fee, in January.
Both the accused demanded Rs 3.50 lakh as bribe to do an official favour. Later, they reduced it to Rs 3 lakh. Unable to pay it, the complainant approached the Lokayukta police, who laid a trap and arrested them on April 2, after Srinivas collected the bribe on behalf of Venkatesh.
The accused denied the allegations against them. However, the public prosecutor opposed their bail applications by placing materials in support of his arguments.
The judge noted that the conversational transcriptions reproduced in the trap and pre-trap panchanamas, recovery of Rs 3 lakh from the accused and other related documents, prima facie disclose the involvement of both the accused in committing the alleged offences. Therefore, this is not a fit case to grant bail at this stage, he observed.