Corporator gets bail in corruption case

The High Court of Karnataka on Friday granted conditional bail to Rajajinagar corporator G Krishnamurthy who was accused of demanding bribe from a BBMP contractor.

Two BBMP engineers Arun Kumar and K M Krishna, who were also accused of demanding bribe from a contractor to get their bills cleared, were also granted bail. The three were caught red-handed by the Anti Corruption Bureau and arrested. A contractor was entrusted with renovating the RTO complex at Rajajinagar at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore by the BBMP. He completed the work by the end of 2015, but his bills were not cleared for more than a year. Krishnamurthy and other BBMP officials had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 38.5 lakh from the contractor to get his bills cleared. This included Rs 23.5 lakh for the corporator and Rs 15 lakh for the engineers.

The three were trapped when they were allegedly accepting the partial bribe amount. Justice Rathnakala granted them conditional bail and directed them to deposit a bond of Rs 1 lakh each with an equal amount as surety. They were directed to co-operate in the investigation and not to tamper with evidence.