Vijayawada: The anti corruption bureau (ACB) officials caught Kanchikacherla tahsildar Jahnavi red-handed while accepting a bribe on Wednesday night. She was caught taking a bribe from a tenant farmer in connection with issuing passbooks.
According to ACB officials, Maganti Koteshwara Rao, a tenant farmer from Nakkalampeta village, had applied for a pattadar passbook after registering his land details in the One-B (1B) records. However, when he approached the revenue officials for the passbook, tahsildar Jahnavi and village revenue officer (VRO) Ramarao allegedly demanded over 1 lakh as a bribe. After negotiations, the officials agreed to issue the passbook for 30,000.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the farmer approached the ACB office in Vijayawada. Acting on his complaint, the ACB sleuths laid a trap on Wednesday night.
As planned, Koteshwara visited the revenue office and handed over 30,000 to the tahsildar and VRO. At that moment, ACB officials, led by Vijayawada range in-charge DSP M Kishore Kumar and CIs Satyanarayana and Suresh, raided the office and caught the officials red-handed.
The ACB team recovered 30,000 in cash from their possession and seized relevant documents for further investigation. Both the tahsildar and the VRO were taken into custody for further legal proceedings.
