Govt official who admitted to seeking bribes dismissed from duty

Mangaluru: Days after Taluk panchayat executive official Sadanand’s admission of having sought a bribe from a panchayat development officer (PDO) to move his files, the officer, on Tuesday, September 18 was dismissed from the post of the executive officer (EO).

A video of the officer seeking bribe in front of Mangaluru North MLA Dr Bharath Shetty had gone viral on social media, prompting the Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr M R Ravi to initiate action against the official. On September 17, two days after the incident, the CEO sought a written explanation from Sadanand, justifying his action, within 24 hours time. However, the officer failed to justify his offence in the explanation, said the CEO in a release.

Meanwhile, though Sadanand has been removed from the EO’s post, he will continue as additional director of taluk panchayat.