The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested a Revenue Inspector (RI) and a Village Revenue Assistant (VRA) here on Saturday evening on charges of demanding a bribe to issue a gun licence.
The accused officers have been identified as T. Venkateswarlu and M. Madduleti, the RI and VRA respectively. Speaking to The Hindu , ACB Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) M. Nagabhushanam said the officers were demanding ₹7,000 to issue a gun licence to a man named Ramana Reddy.
“The complainant, Ramana Reddy of Kurnool city, approached the Collector to expand the jurisdiction of his gun licence. Mr. Ramana Reddy possessed a State licence and he wanted to obtain an all-India licence,” Mr. Nagabhushanam said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Collector notified the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), who in turn delegated the task to the Kallur tahsildar. The tahsildar put Venkateswarlu in charge of completing the verification and processing of Mr. Ramana Reddy’s application.
Venkateswarlu then allegedly demanded a bribe of ₹10,000 from Mr. Ramana Reddy to process the application. However, Mr. Ramana Reddy reportedly struck a bargain for ₹7,000 and later approached the ACB office on Saturday morning. At around 3:30 pm, Venkatesawarlu called Mr. Ramana Reddy and asked him to bring the money to the State guesthouse in the city. However, Mr. Ramana Reddy said he would send the money through his aide Mahboob Basha. “At 4 p.m., Mr. Basha went to give the money to Venkateswarlu, who asked Mr. Basha to give the money to Madduleti, the revenue assistant,” the DSP said.
The ACB then arrested both the officers. The accused officers are scheduled to be produced in an ACB court soon.
ADVERTISEMENT
With the latest arrests, the ACB in the past three months has filed cases against six revenue officers in total.