Sub-registrar, chief officer in Lokayukta trap

In a simultaneous raid, Lokayukta police on Friday trapped seven including a sub-registrar and chief officer of a town panchayat.

A release from the office of Mysore Lokayukta SP S M Jagadish Prasad stated that the accused are identified as sub-registrar of Kuderu in Chamarajanagar district N Madaiah and deed writer G S Venkatachala Murthy.

In his complaint to Lokayukta police on Friday, Nanjunda Shetty of Moodala Agrahara in Chamarajanagar district had alleged that the officer had demanded the bribe to make changes in the documents of property owned by him.

Shetty had leased over four acres of land belonging to him; 1.25 acre at survey number 25/1 in the village and another 2.19 acres at survey number 25/3, 40 years ago. The lessee had agreed to hand back the land after fulfilling the related procedures. However the officer was the only hurdle.

He had directed Madaiah to hand over the bribe amount to venkatachalamurthy when the police swooped on him, the release added.

In another case, chief officer of H D Kote town panchayat Puttaraju, first division assistant Shyamsundar, bill collector Purushotham and their aide Ganesh were arrested for bribery.

Following a complaint from Ramesh a businessman, the team apprehended them. Ramesh had earlier greased the palms of the first two accused for the release of a bill of Rs seven lakh towards the supply of sewing machines under a scheme.

They had demanded for Rs 10,000 for the chief officer and Rs 5,000 for the FDA towards the release of  pending Rs one lakh.

Accordingly Ramesh had paid the bribe amount and the FDA had handed over his share to bill collector. The bill collector had given the same to Ganesh who runs a welding shop in the neighbourhood.

Dy SP G K Rashmi and inspector Gopalakrishna conducted the trap.