Hanamkonda additional Collector, two clerks in ACB net

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Additional Collector and in-charge DEO A. Venkat Reddy along with two staff members in Hanamkonda for allegedly demanding a bribe to renew a private school’s application. The correspondent of Creative Model School was asked to pay Rs 1 lakh, later reduced to Rs 60,000, for clearance of the renewal.

Hanamkonda: The Additional Collector (Revenue), in-charge district educational officer (DEO), A Venkat Reddy and two education department staff were taken into custody by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in a bribe case here on Friday.

The ACB DSP, Sambaiah speaking to the media informed that last month the correspondent of Creative Model School at Kothur jenda area in Hanamkonda submitted an application to Hanamkonda DEO online for the renewal of the school.

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Hanamkonda MEO submitted a report regarding the application. As the renewal of school was delayed, the correspondent visited the DEO office and contacted educational departments’ junior assistant Kanneboina Manoj and senior assistant Mohd. Ghousuddin.

They told him that Rs 1 lakh should be paid to the in-charge DEO Venkat Reddy for the renewal of the school. The school correspondent contacted the in-charge DEO twice in the presence of the above clerks asking him to reduce the amount and he was told to pay Rs 60,000.

The ACB officials caught Manoj when he was receiving the amount from the correspondent at the backside of Hanamkonda collectorate. Venkat Reddy was booked in a disproportionate assets case in 2008 in Nalgonda and faced corruption charges in ring road land acquisition when he was Jangaon RDO in the past, Sambaiah said.

ACB Inspectors S Raju and L Raju along with Khammam Inspectors took part in the raid. The accused official and the clerks would be produced before the ACB court in Warangal on Saturday, he added.