<p>A first-division assistant in the Lokayukta office here was arrested on Thursday for taking a bribe of Rs 25,000 from a constable for not raking up an old corruption case against him. <br /><br />Officials of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Sunkanna, a judgement writer at Additional Registrar of Enquiries - 1 in the Lokayukta office, on the basis of a complaint filed by a constable attached to the APMC police station in Ballari. The constable, whose identity has been withheld by the ACB, had been trapped in 2011 in a corruption case and prosecuted by the Lokayukta police. But the court acquitted him later, and the Lokayukta police didn’t go in for appeal. <br /><br />The constable, however, faced a departmental enquiry that was initiated following the trap in 2011. <br /><br />Sunkanna reportedly tried to take advantage of the pending departmental enquiry and started asking him for bribe. He contacted the constable through the latter’s colleague, Sudhakar. <br /><br />“Sunkanna claimed that because of his intervention, the Lokayukta police had not filed an appeal against the constable’s acquittal. He would call up Sudhakar and ask him to demand a bribe of Rs 34,000 from the constable,” an official said. <br /><br />Upset by the repeated demands, the constable wrote to the Lokayukta, Justice P Vishwanath Shetty, and brought to his notice how an official in his office was demanding bribe. Justice Shetty forwarded the letter to the ADGP (ACB), N S Megharikh. <br /><br />The ACB registered an FIR and laid a trap. On Thursday, they asked the constable to pay a bribe of Rs 25,000 to Sudhakar in Ballari. The ACB caught Sudhakar red-handed. Another team of the ACB arrested Sunkanna from the Lokayukta office in Bengaluru. <br /></p>
<p>A first-division assistant in the Lokayukta office here was arrested on Thursday for taking a bribe of Rs 25,000 from a constable for not raking up an old corruption case against him. <br /><br />Officials of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Sunkanna, a judgement writer at Additional Registrar of Enquiries - 1 in the Lokayukta office, on the basis of a complaint filed by a constable attached to the APMC police station in Ballari. The constable, whose identity has been withheld by the ACB, had been trapped in 2011 in a corruption case and prosecuted by the Lokayukta police. But the court acquitted him later, and the Lokayukta police didn’t go in for appeal. <br /><br />The constable, however, faced a departmental enquiry that was initiated following the trap in 2011. <br /><br />Sunkanna reportedly tried to take advantage of the pending departmental enquiry and started asking him for bribe. He contacted the constable through the latter’s colleague, Sudhakar. <br /><br />“Sunkanna claimed that because of his intervention, the Lokayukta police had not filed an appeal against the constable’s acquittal. He would call up Sudhakar and ask him to demand a bribe of Rs 34,000 from the constable,” an official said. <br /><br />Upset by the repeated demands, the constable wrote to the Lokayukta, Justice P Vishwanath Shetty, and brought to his notice how an official in his office was demanding bribe. Justice Shetty forwarded the letter to the ADGP (ACB), N S Megharikh. <br /><br />The ACB registered an FIR and laid a trap. On Thursday, they asked the constable to pay a bribe of Rs 25,000 to Sudhakar in Ballari. The ACB caught Sudhakar red-handed. Another team of the ACB arrested Sunkanna from the Lokayukta office in Bengaluru. <br /></p>
