Govt officials caught taking bribe, arrested by ACB

Mangaluru: Two government officials, caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000 were arrested by sleuths of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday, October 26.

Sooryanarayana Bhat, a technical assistant in Superintending Engineering Office of RDPR in Mangaluru and Assistant Engineer Sudheen are the arrested.

A trap was laid for the officials after a civil contractor Adam approached the ACB to file a complaint against the duo.

Recently Adam, who alongside his father has been into civil construction work from the past decade had won a tender to construct two classrooms and a washroom at Government PU College at Kalasa. The engineering department of Panchayat Raj was to release the amount of Rs 52,58,302 towards the same.

In his complaint, Adam alleged that the officials had initially demanded a sum of Rs 50,000 to release the said amount and later settled down for Rs 25,000. Adam conceded to their demand but at the same time he brought the matter to notice of the ACB officials. 

A team of police led by Superintendent of Police Shruthi N S along with DySP Sudheer M Hegde and other personnel raided the office and caught both the officers while accepting the bribe. Apart from the bribe money paid by Adam, the police also seized an additional Rs 26,000 cash which was in Suryanarayana’s bag.

A case has been registered in this connection and an investigation is on.