Hyderabad: Two officials caught red-handed while taking Rs 2.5-lakh bribe

Hyderabad: In a successful sting operation conducted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, a mandal parishad officer and a panchayat secretary were apprehended while demanding and receiving a bribe of Rs 2.50 lakh in exchange for official services.

The accused, Pasaladi Kalyani, who serves as a mandal parishad officer at MPP Kandukur office, was caught red-handed in a joint operation with Derangula Narender, the panchayath secretary at the Grama Panchayath Rachaluru village office in Kandukur mandal on Wednesday. The complainant, N Madhusudhan Reddy, approached ACB after the two officials solicited the bribe as a means to bypass HMDA (Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority) regulations, permitting him to operate his factory without hindrance.

Originally, the accused had demanded a staggering sum of Rs 5 lakh, which was subsequently negotiated down to Rs 2.5 lakh. ACB officials disclosed that the officers had previously issued Madhusudhan a notice, coercing him into payment as a condition for resolving the compliance issue.