Official gets 5-year RI for bribery

The Special Lokayukta Court on Wednesday sentenced a joint director of the department of employment and training to five years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) after finding him guilty of seeking a bribe of more than Rs 8 lakh.

K Ramachandrappa held the post in January 2011. According to the complaint lodged by Revanna Gowda, principal of Pushpa Ravi ITI college in Gandasi, Hassan district, Ramachandrappa demanded a bribe of Rs 10.75 lakh to release a grant-in-aid already approved by the government, to pay the salaries of nine staffers of the college.

Ramachandrappa was paid Rs two lakh as advance amount and six months later, when Revanna asked him to release the amount, he demanded Rs 10.25 lakh. After being told that he had already been paid Rs two lakh, he agreed to take Rs 8.25 lakh.

Ramachandrappa told Revanna that he charged a set amount for each of the nine staff members who had to be paid their salaries.

While accepting the money, Ramachandrappa refused to accept the money directly and instead asked his superintendent to take it. Both were arrested after being trapped.

Lokayukta sources said they had received several complaints about Ramachandrappa, but had failed in their earlier attempts to trap him. The police also made sure during the raid that Revanna was accompanied by another principal Gururaj, who too had paid a bribe to Ramachandrappa earlier.

During the court proceedings, the counsel for Ramachandrappa had argued that he had not demanded the bribe, but Revanna and Gururaj had collected money in his name from other college principals and that he had merely recovered that amount from them.

He was sentenced by the court to five years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1.25 lakh was imposed on him, under Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He was also sentenced under Section 7 to two years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 75,000 was imposed on him. Both sentences will run concurrently.