VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has set aside the lower court’s verdict of letting a government employee accused of taking bribe free and convicted him. Recently, hearing an appeal of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) against Nellore ACB court’s verdict in 2007, Justice AV Ravindra Babu sentenced deputy surveyor Nimmakayala Vijaya Kumar to three years rigours imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 under the Anti Corruption Act Section 7 and another three years rigours imprisonment and Rs 10,000 under Section 13 (2) of the Act. The court ordered running of both sentences concurrently.
On September 16, 2002, Vijaya Kumar demanded a bribe of Rs 15,000 for issuing a survey report to Gorantla Veeraiah Chowdary and his brother Butchaiah Chowdary of Bitragunta in Bogolu mandal of Nellore district. The duo had purchased 16.66 acres each and Veeraiah sold five acres to his brother. They approached Dagadarthi MRO seeking survey of land to demarcate boundaries. The MRO asked them to go to Vijaya Kumar for survey report. When Vijaya Kumar demanded a bribe, the duo agreed to pay Rs 8,000. Later, they approached ACB, which laid a trap and caught Vijaya Kumar red handed while he was accepting the bribe. A case was registered. However, he was relieved of corruption charges by Nellore ACB court in 2007.
However, the ACB, which got enough evidence against Vijay Kumar, went for an appeal against the verdict in the High Court. After nearly one-and-a-half decades, the pending case came up for hearing before Justice Ravindra Babu. ACB advocate SM Subhani said the reasons cited by Nellore ACB court for dismissing the case against Vijay Kumar were not proper. He argued that the evidence produced in the ACB court against the accused was not taken into consideration.
Vijaya Kumar’s counsel argued that when the application requesting for the survey was not submitted in a proper format, there was no question of survey being conducted. He argued that such being the case, where was the question of bribe being demanded by his client. After hearing arguments from both sides, Justice Ravindra Babu set aside the 2007 verdict of the lower court acquitting Vijaya Kumar in the corruption case and convicted him.