Officer was caught red-handed by Anti-Corruption Bureau while receiving Rs. 5,000 from Cop

Madikeri: A Deputy Tahsildar in Kodagu district has been trapped by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for accepting a bribe from a Police Constable yesterday.

The officer is Umesh, who was working as a Deputy Tahsildar at the office of Madikeri Assistant Commissioner. He was caught red-handed while accepting Rs. 5,000 from Ramesh, the Police Constable.

According to the ACB sleuths, Ramesh is a retired ex-serviceman and was working as a Cop in Virajpet Rural Police Station. He had 6-cents land in Virajpet and had approached the Virajpet Tahsildar urging the officer to provide Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) for the land.

The Virajpet Tahsildar told Ramesh to get the issue resolved from the District Assistant Commissioner’s Office. Accordingly, Ramesh applied for RTC before the Madikeri Assistant Commissioner in December last year and the land issue came up before the Assistant Commissioner’s Court and the hearing was held.

During the time of the hearing, the Assistant Commissioner’s Court directed Ramesh not to come for the second hearing and he would be informed after all the documents pertaining to his land are ready. Deputy Tahsildar had communicated this to Ramesh.

Though the orders were in Ramesh’s favour, he had to approach Umesh several times as his work was not done. According to Ramesh, he met Umesh several times seeking RTC for his land but got evasive replies. Ramesh then voluntarily offered Rs. 2,000 to Umesh and pleaded him to issue the RTC. Still the work was not done.

ACB sleuths said that when Ramesh repeatedly approached Deputy Tahsildar Umesh, the latter demanded a bribe of Rs. 7,000. The Cop then told the officer that he would be able to pay only Rs. 5,000 and the officer agreed for the deal. Ramesh then approached the ACB and lodged a complaint.

Following the complaint, the ACB sleuths laid a trap and caught Umesh red-handed while accepting Rs. 5,000 from Ramesh last evening. As soon as Umesh realised that he was trapped, he slid the currency notes into his pants. The money along with the pants has been seized by the ACB.

The trapping operation was carried out by ACB Superintendent of Police Umesh, Dy.SP Umesh Nayak, Circle Inspector Mahesh and Doddasiddegowda. ACB staff Dinesh, Sajan, Lohit, Rajesh, Suresh, Deepika and Ashwin Kumar participated.