Medak Addl Collector Gaddam Nagesh, 4 others arrested for demanding Rs 1.12 Cr bribe

Hyderabad: A usual raid turned out to be one of the biggest operations of Telangana’s Anti-Corruption Bureau in 2020, so far. The sleuths arrested five government officials including an additional collector in a graft case.

ACB officials carried out multiple raids on 9th of September against Gaddam Nagesh, Additional collector Medak district, B Aruna Reddy–Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) of Narsapur, Abdul Sattar Tahasildar of Chilpiched, Waseem Ahmed- Junior assistant-Survey and land records and Kola Jeevan Goud, a private person. Five have been taken into custody for demanding bribe to the tune of Rs 1.12 crore from a land lord.

Sleuths of Anti- Corruption Bureau #Telangana searched the house of Narsapur Revenue Divisional officer and found cash to the tune of Rs 28 lakhs. Searches are being held against Medak Deputy Collector in an alleged graft case. pic.twitter.com/woRtFondqU

— NewsMeter (@NewsMeter_In) September 9, 2020

[amp-tweet tweetid="https://twitter.com/NewsMeter_In/status/1303618101339066368"]

It all began when complainant K Linga Murthy, a resident of Serilingampally submitted a report before the Deputy superintendent of police- ACB in February 2020. He explained, that along with four others he (referring to Linga Murthy) entered into an agreement-of-land-sale measuring 112.21 acres in survey number 59/31, 59/40, 58/1, 58/2 situated in Chippalaturthi village in Narsapur madal in Medak district of Telangana.

As part of the registration process, he submitted an application to Abdul Sattar, Tahsildar, Narsapur seeking for a Non-Objection-Certificate(NOC).Since the land falls in the list of 22-A prohibitory properties, the document was a must. Simultaneously, copies of the application were submitted to Dharma Reddy, collector of Medak district and B. Aruna Reddy –RDO Narsapur.

The lid blew off, when Additional Collector Gaddam Nagesh demanded Rs 1.12 crore bribe at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per acre to issue N.O.C. The tainted officer accepted bribes in two installments, Rs 19.5 lakh and Rs 20.5 lakh respectively.

In what could mirror the depth of corruption in the revenue system, the additional collector demanded 5 acres of land because the complainant failed to pay the remaining bribe amount of Rs 72 lakh. He obtained an 'agreement-of-sale' to an extent of 5 acre.

The land was transferred to the name of his (Nagesh’s) benami Kola Jeevan Goud. Besides this the tainted deputy collector took 8 signed blank cheques of the complainant as surety for land registration. While the exploitation didn't end there, Mohd WaseemAhmed, serving as a junior assistant in survey and land records accepted Rs 5 lakh from Linga Murthy on the instructions of Gaddam Nagesh. This was a share of bribe for other officials who processed the file. Out of which Rs 1 lakh wasgiven to B Aruna Reddy–RDO and Abdul Sattar, tahasildar.

Investigation found that Linga Murthy was compelled to pay the above bribe amount to get the NOC and complete pending survey work and online record correction pertaining to the land. The sleuths of ACB carried out searches at the residence of additional collector Gaddam Nagesh and found 8 blank cheques, sale agreement and other undiscriminating documents.

Concurrent searches were held at the house of RDO Aruna Reddy where unaccounted cash of Rs 28 lakh and half KG gold was found.The five have been arrested and presented before the special court hearing ACB cases.