2 officials in ACB net

Mangaluru: Two government officials were allegedly caught red-handed by sleuths of the Anti Corruption Bureau while accepting a bribe from a civil contractor, here on Friday.
The arrested officials have been identified as Suryanarayna Bhat, technical assistant and Sudin, assistant engineer. They work in the rural development and panchayat raj department in Mangaluru.

The raid was conducted on the basis of a complaint filed by Adam, a government civil contractor. Shruti N, superintendent of police, ACB, said Adam, the son of Abubakkar M, had been awarded a tender to construct two classrooms and a washroom at Government PU College at Kalasa. They received the work tender after an online bid at a cost of Rs 52,58,302. Adam and his father were into civil construction work from the past decade.

In the complaint filed with the ACB, Adam had alleged that after 10 days of the tender being awarded, he received a call from Suryanaryana Bhat who demanded that Ravindra Kini, superintendent engineer, is asking for one per cent commission, which is Rs 50,000. When Adam declined his demand, he finally settled for half per cent. Adam later filed a complaint with ACB against three officials. Based on the complaint, ACB sleuths raided the office while a bribe of 25,000 was being paid. Sleuths have also seized an additional Rs 26,000 cash which was in Suryanarayana’s bag.

A case has been registered in this connection and an investigation is on.