JOIN USFour trapped by Lokayukta in Mandya, Hassan districts
C K Venugopal, manager and Somalingashetty, attender are the accused. The department had hired a car on rent from Shivaraju of Kacchigere village. The car owner had submitted a bill for the settlement three months ago. However, Venugopal was reportedly harassing Shivaraju to pay ` 57,000. The manager demanded ` 5,000 for clearing the bill. Subsequently, Shivaraju had paid ` 2,000 as first installment. But the manager was pestering him to pay rest of the money.
Acting on the complaint, the Lokyukta caught the duo redhanded when they were receiving bribe in the evening at the office. The duo arrested and produced to judicial custody.
Lokyukta Superintendent A N Swamy, Deputy Superintendent Basavaraj, Inspector Raju led the operation.
In another incident, Lokayukta sleuths trapped a first division assistant of Pandavapura taluk office while receiving the bribe from a farmer, for the change of katha. Puttannaiah is the accused. He had allegedly demanded ` 1,500 from the farmer. Puttannaiah was arrested and produced to judicial custody.
Clerk arrested
In Hassan, a clerk attached to Hemavathy Reservoir Project Department was trapped by the Lokayukta while accepting a bribe of ` 600 from a person to get an alternative site, following submergence of his land in the backwaters of Hemavathy.
The accused officer is identified as Veerabhadrappa. The complainant, Venkateshgowda was given an alternative site by the authorities concerned. But that land was in the possession of a private party and he had got back the land through court. So Venkateshgowda was left with no sites. The complanaint’s mother had submitted an application seeking allotment of another site to the department concerned two to three years ago. However, there was no response from the officials.
When Venkateshgowda went to the office on Saturday last, the clerk had told him that the site would not be allotted till the bribe was paid. In the wake of this, Venkateshgowda approached the Lokayukta Police. Acting on the complaint, the Lokayukta Inspector trapped Veerabhadrappa while receiving the money.
A case has been registered.
