ACB Trap Revenue Inspector,Head constable red handed while accepting bribe to settle land dispute:

Pramesh S Jain

Anti Corruption Bureau(ACB),officials on Thursday night trapped and caught a Revenue Inspector(RI),and a head constable,(HC) red-handed while receiving bribe amount from a land owner promising to settle the civil dispute he was facing.

The accused Revenue Inspector,H Putta Hanumaiah alias Praveen,is attached with Chikkajala North Taluk office,while the head constable,identified as Raju,is attached with Chikkajala police station allegedly took the bribe on behalf of Police Inspector of Chikkajala police station,Yeshwanth.

However the third accused police inspector of Chikkajala,Yeshwanth in the case,escaped the ACB officials efforts are on to secure his custody, a senior police officer said.

According to ACB officials,on Thursday they received a complaint stating that he had a sale agreement to purchase five acres of land in Shettigere village in Chikkajala Hobli,bearing survey number 79,from the landowner Syed Baba Jaan in 2018.He had agreed to pay Rs 2.8 crore for the land and had given Rs 15 lakh as an advance in two instalments.

Meanwhile the landlord Baba Jaan Baba had allegedly executed another sale agreement with another person.

The complainant had approached the court for an injunction order which was granted in his favour.

The complainant approached the Tahsildar office and filed an application to get land registration documents as,podi,mutation and pouthi khata.To give these documents,Hanumaiah had demanded Rs 50 lakh bribe.

At the same time,the complainant had approached Chikkajala police seeking protection to put a board in the disputed land and met police inspector Yeshwanth and head constable Raju.

The accused head constable Raju demanded a bribe of Rs 10 lakh and the complainant paid Rs 4 lakh to Yeshwanth.The complainant after approaching ACB officials had gone to give remaining Rs 6 lakh to police.

Raju was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe money near the police station.Hanumaiah was also caught red-handed while accepting Rs 5 lakh bribe near Sheshadripuram.

The ACB officials have intensified the search to nab Yeshwanth,who is on the run senior ACB official said.