Accused demanded money from a physically challenged international sportsperson

Mysuru: An office manager of the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) was trapped red- handed yesterday by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) while accepting a bribe of Rs. 4,500 for sanctioning cheques to beneficiaries under ‘three percent grant scheme’ of JnNURM project. The officer, Thejkumar, was trapped along  with the cash.

Thejkumar (First Division Assistant) was the office manager for JnNURM projects that come under Additional Commissioner of MCC. He had demanded bribe from a physically challenged sports achiever Prabhuswamy, a resident of Janata Nagar here.

Prabhuswamy, the President of Vikala Chethana Abhyudaya Samsthe, Mysuru, had represented India in World Master Game held at Auckland, New Zealand. He had participated in the International sports meet for the specially-abled and had won gold medals in javelin and shot-put.

Considering his achievements, the State Government had sanctioned a cash reward to him and Prabhuswamy had applied through MCC to get this cash reward. When the file reached Thejkumar, he demanded a bribe and asked Prabhuswamy to cough up Rs. 2,500 for him to sanction the cheque.

Prabhuswamy was made to run from section to section at the office by Thejkumar until he agreed to pay the bribe and fed up with this trauma, the former complained to the ACB sleuths who laid a trap. Not only from Prabhuswamy, Thejkumar had also demanded a bribe of Rs. 2,000 from Sinchana, one more beneficiary of a different scheme. She too had complained to the ACB.

Following complaints, the ACB team asked the complainants to visit the MCC office at 3.30 pm yesterday where Thejkumar was trapped red-handed. The team was led by ACB Inspectors Shekhar and Naveen.

The trapping operation was supervised by ACB Superintendent of Police Dr. H.T. Shekar and Dy.SP Umesh G. Shet. Thejkumar was produced before a Court in Mysuru that remanded him to judicial custody.