KADAPA: The demon of corruption has claimed an innocent life. A farmer climbed a cell tower in protest against a tahsildar’s alleged demand of `4 lakh as bribe for issuing pattadar passbook and died when he suffered a stroke at Nagireddypalli in Nandalur mandal of the district Monday.
According to reports reaching here, the victim, Sayed Maqbool (50), collapsed on the tower itself and when the police brought him down and took him to the hospital, he died on the way.
Maqbool, one of the five sons of Syed Abdul Sattar and his wife Syed Fatima, approached the revenue authorities for justice in the past and when he found out that three of his brothers had cornered the entire 5.13 acres of land their parents had bequeathed.
On receipt of a petition, the then sub-collector of Rajampet, Preethi Meena, asked the officials to cancel all the pattadar passbooks pertaining to the land and issue fresh passbooks to all the five brothers.
Despite the orders of the sub-collector, the case did not move an inch for the past two years.
Maqbool said on Sunday that Nagireddypalli tahsildar Narsimhulu was demanding `4 lakhs as bribe for issuing fresh passbook and that he would wash the dirty linen in the public Monday.
Maqbool mounted the cell tower as a mark of protest but a short while later, he collapsed on the tower itself and died.
Police who climbed the cell tower to bring Maqbool down reportedly found a suicide note in his pocket alleging that he was being harassed for payment of bribe to the tahsildar.
Soon after the incident, the relatives of the deceased reached the spot and staged dharna demanding tahsildar’s suspension.
DSP Aravind Babu assured them of justice by bringing the issue to the notice of the collector. Later, the body of Maqbool was shifted to Rajampet government hospital for post-mortem. Despite several attempts, Express could not contact tahsildar Narsimhulu.
