HYDERABAD: Blowing the lid off a scam woven by Revenue Department officials with the help of police, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) exposed two tainted officials — Shaikpet mandal Tahsildar, Ch Sujatha and Revenue Inspector of the same mandal, K Nagarjuna Reddy — and a police official, Banjara Hills Sub-Inspector of police, A Ravinder.
Investigating a complaint of corruption linked to dispute over 4,865 square yards of land in the uptown Road No.14, Banjara Hills, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials on Saturday raided Sujatha’s residence and discovered wads of cash amounting to Rs 30 lakh apart from gold ornaments and other valuables. ACB sleuths also paid a trip to Reddy’s office where they caught him red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 15 lakh.
The corruption link ran deeper, as the ACB found that even the Banjara Hills SI, Ravinder, was involved in the scam, as he had demanded a bribe of Rs 3 lakh. The ACB officials arrested the Revenue Inspector and the Banjara Hills Sub-Inspector and are investigating into the issue further.
According to the ACB, the complainant, Syed Abdul, had lodged a complaint with the ACB stating that he possessed 4,865 square yards of land located at Road No. 14 in Banjara Hills which was bought in the year 1969 by his father. The current market value of the land is Rs 40 crore.
The complainant filed a petition before Tahsildar Sujatha, with a request to survey his land and update the details online. He later filed a petition before the High Court asking for directions to Revenue Department officials to not to interfere in the matter, which is still pending. Following this, Sujatha filed a complaint with the Banjara Hills police that Abdul had encroached government land.
‘More officers involved in bribery scam’
When Abdul later approached Sujatha for resolution of the issue, she directed him to the Revenue Inspector, Nagarjuna Reddy who in turn demanded a bribe of Rs 30 lakh. On Saturday, as the complainant went to Reddy’s office to pay a part of the bribe amount, the ACB officials nabbed Reddy.
During questioning, he confessed that more officers were also involved in the scam. Following the statement, ACB officials raided Banjara Hills SI A Ravinder and found that he had accepted Rs 1.50 lakh bribe for closing cases that were registered against Abdul. The SI had demanded Rs 3 lakh bribe from the complainant. The ACB officials are likely to register cases on Sujatha. and take action against her.