HYDERABAD/SANGAREDDY: Even as Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was unveiling a new Act in the Assembly to root out corruption, the ACB sleuths on Wednesday apprehended Medak Additional Collector Gaddam Nagesh for demanding a bribe of Rs 1.12 crore for issuing a No Objection Certificate (NOC) at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per acre for 112 acres in Chipplaturthi village of Narsapur mandal.
The Additional Collector’s arrest comes close on the heels of Keesara Tahsildar E Balaraju Nagaraju’s arrest. The latter had collected a Rs 1.10 crore bribe for issuing land passbooks. The Medak Additional Collector had demanded Rs 1.12 crore bribe in cash and five acres of land as his share for issuing the NOC, to get 112 acres of prohibited government land in Chipplaturthi registered.
The ACB officials also arrested Narsapur RDO B Aruna Reddy and Narsapur Tahsildar Abdul Sattar, Junior Assistant of Survey and Land Records office Waseem and a benami of the Additional Collector named Kola Jeevan Goud.
According to ACB officials, K Linga Reddy, a resident of Serilingampally, lodged a complaint with them stating that he along with four persons, had entered into an agreement for purchasing 112 acres of land in Survey No 59/31, 59/40, 58/1 and 58/2 located at Chippalturthi. For registration of this land, an NOC is required from Revenue officials.
On June 21, Tahsildar Abdul Sattar forwarded an application in connection with the NOC issue to the RDO of Narsapur. In turn, the RDO sent the file to district collectorate for a final nod to issue an NOC as the land falls under the list of 22-A prohibition lands.
On July 31, Additional Collector Gaddam Nagesh demanded Rs 1.12 crore at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per acre to issue an NOC and took Rs 19.5 lakh as advance from the complainant. On August 7, Nagesh received the next bribe installment of Rs 20. 5 lakh from Linga Reddy.
As the complainant could not arrange the remaining amount of Rs 72 lakh, Nagesh obtained an agreement of sale dated August 21 for five of the 112 acres in the name of his benami Kola Jeevan Goud, a resident of Secunderabad. Nagesh also collected eight blank cheques from the complainant.Similarly, land and survey records office employee Waseem had collected Rs 5 lakh and RDO of Narsapur, Aruna Reddy and Tahsildar Sattar collected Rs 1 lakh each from Linga Reddy.
Based on the complaint, ACB officials kept a close eye on movements of the accused officers and staff and found several irregularities. After registering the cases, the ACB conducted raids on the residences of the accused officers on Wednesday and found huge amounts of cash and other incriminatory material.
The ACB team, led by ACB DSP Suryanarayana, conducted simultaneous raids at the Additional Collector’s residence, Narsapur RDO office, residence of RDO Aruna Reddy in Hyderabad and Narsapur Tahsildar office. They seized registration documents of five acres, in the benami’s name, at Nagesh’s residence. They also seized Rs 28 lakh cash, half kg of gold and other documents at the Narsapur RDO’s residence.
All the accused officers were arrested by the ACB on Wednesday and produced in court for judicial remand. Teams have been formed to investigate the case further. The officials also wanted to open Nagesh’s bank locker in Hyderabad but could not do so as there was no permission from the court.
Simultaneous raids
The ACB team, led by ACB DSP Suryanarayana, conducted simultaneous raids at Addl Collector’s residence, Narsapur RDO office, residence of RDO Aruna Reddy in Hyderabad and Narsapur tahildar office