JOIN USThe Lokayukta police on Saturday raided the APMC yard in Singena Agrahara, Anekal Taluk and seized incriminating documents and cash collected in violation of rules.
In a statement, H N Satyanarayana Rao, Additional Director General of Police, Lokayukta Police, said: “...We have recovered bribe of Rs 24,275 and documents pertaining to malpractices.”
He added that discrepancies were also noticed between the commodities mentioned in the bill and the actual ones.
Sources in the Lokayukta police said the raid had been meticulously planned and that the money recovered does not indicate the magnitude of corruption at the APMC.
“The money (Rs 24,275) we recovered is something that these people had collected as bribe in one hour today (Saturday). Even if we consider this an average for half a working day, one can imagine the magnitude of corruption here,” one of the officers said.
He added that the 16-member team, led by Superintendents of Police Martin and Ashwini had credible information that officials and security guards of the yard were indulging in corrupt practices and collecting bribe from incoming and outgoing vehicles.
The source pointed out that a team of Lokayukta police had visited the yard pretending to be farmers a few days ago. Given that there were cameras, the team, on Saturday, decided to hire private vehicles to conduct the raid, in a bid to prevent the corrupt officials from getting a heads up.
While sources said that a few arrests have been made, officials did not confirm the same.
DH News Service