The Karnataka Lokayukta office.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: The Lokayukta police on Saturday trapped excise department officials including Deputy Commissioner Jagadeesh Naik, (57) while they were allegedly accepting Rs 25 lakh as part of a bribe demanded for issuing CL-7 and microbrewery licences.
The complainant, Lakshminarayana C, alleged that officials demanded Rs 2.30 crore for clearing the licences — Rs 80 lakh for the CL-7 licence and Rs 1.5 crore for the microbrewery licence. Later, the deal was allegedly finalised at Rs 2.25 crore after offering a “discount” of Rs 5 lakh.
The Loka officials said that Lakshminarayana had initially applied offline for the licences six months ago and paid all mandatory government fees. However, despite six months having passed and then he was asked to apply for online and Rs 16.6 lakh payment was also made. However, the licences were not issued. He alleged that officials made it clear that the process would not move forward without paying the bribe.
The complainant said he was initially asked to pay Rs 50 lakh and, after borrowing money from his friends, arranged Rs 25 lakh and approached the Lokayukta, following which a trap was laid.
“I have paid all government fees. But they demanded a bribe to sign the file. Asking for Rs 2 crore from someone who has taken loans to start a business can push people to suicide,”
Lakshminarayana alleged, adding that he was ashamed to speak about the issue despite being a Congress party leader.
He further claimed that the bribe amount was allegedly meant to be shared with several officials, including higher authorities.
A case has been registered under Section 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Lokayukta police said the accused were trapped at around 12.30 pm while accepting Rs 25 lakh. Two of the accused — Lakkappa Gani, (31), Excise constable and Thammanna K M , (41), Superintendent of Excise, — initially escaped during the trap but were later arrested. The bribe was accepted at the office of the Bengaluru Urban District-8, Byatarayanapura , where the accused were caught by the Lokayukta team.