Judge arrested on corruption charge

Sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday arrested Jagtial First Additional Junior Civil Judge S Madhu on the charge of corruption and seized ₹4.20 lakh from his residence in Jagtial town. ACB sources said that following complaints lodged by district advocates that the judge was demanding bribe for acquitting their clients in various cases, the High Court had directed the ACB to register a case against the judge under the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988 and take appropriate action as per law. Accordingly, the ACB had registered a case of criminal misconduct under the provisions of the PC Act and taken up investigation.

An advocate, Ch Ramakrishna, had complained that the judge had demanded ₹10,000 to acquit his client and another advocate, K Venkateshwar Rao, had said he had paid ₹50,000 to the judge for acquitting two of his clients. The Karimnagar ACB court special judge had issued search warrant and, accordingly, ACB officials searched the residence of the judge from Friday morning till late evening. ACB Hyderabad Additional SP Ramana Kumar, Karimnagar DSP Kiran Kumar, and Medak DSP Prathap participated in the search operation at the residence of the judge.