Mangaluru: The officials of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested two government officials of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) while receiving a bribe of Rs 25,000 on Friday, October 26.
The arrested have been identified as Sooryanarayana Bhat, a technical assistant in Superintending Engineering Office of RDPR in Mangaluru and Assistant Engineer Sudheen. Sources from ACB police informed that Aboobakar, a resident of Bapu Nagar in Moodigere Taluk in Chikkamagaluru district got the contract of constructing additional classrooms in Pre University College, Kalasa. As Aboobakkar’s son Adam also engaged in contract works, he took the responsibility of constructing the classrooms. Though the engineering department of Panchayat Raj needs to release the amount of Rs 52,58,302 for the construction of classrooms, the accused Sooryanarayana Bhat demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 from Adam to release the amount. After the negotiation, Adam agreed to pay Rs 25,000. Before handing over bribe money to the accused, Adam complained to the ACB police.
As per the plan, a team of police headed by Superintendent of Police Shruthi N S along with DySP Sudheer M Hegde, Udupi DySP Dinakar Shetty, Inspector Yogish Kumar B C and other staff namely Radhakrishna D A, Ramakrishna K, Vaishali, Rakesh Vagman, Ganesh Rajesh and Suresh Nayak rushed to the office and caught both the officers red-handed while receiving bribe money.
The accused were produced before the Court, sources said.
