ACB traps two RWS officials for shady deal

The duo demanded 6 lakh bribe for clearing pending bills of a contractor

​Nalgonda: The sleuths of Anti Corruption Bureau netted Superintendent of Rural Water Supply (RWS) Laxma Reddy while accepting Rs 6 lakh bribe from a civil contractor on the directions of Superintending Engineer of RWS B Ramana Naik, at the office located at Pangal in Nalgonda on Friday.

ACB sleuths also took RWS Superintending Engineer into custody, who was in Hyderabad participating in an official meeting with superiors.

Disclosing the details to media, ACB DSP Koteshwar Rao said, Ramana Naik along with Laxma Reddy demanded a bribe of Rs 6 lakh to issue proceedings for billing of nine works worth Rs 30 lakh, awarded to a Class-III civil contractor Vivekananda Reddy, a resident of LB Nagar in Hyderabad.

The contractor has already received Rs 60 lakh related to 30 works and bills of nine works were pending.

When he approached the RWS Superintending Engineer Ramana Naik for the issue of proceedings for release of remaining amount of Rs 30 lakh for nine works, Ramana Naik demanded Rs 6 lakh bribe to pass the bills. He has also asked the contractor to hand over the amount to Laxma Reddy on January 27.

Vexed Vivekananda Reddy approached the ACB and urged their help. As part of their plan, the ACB officials sent the contactor with currency notes on which a chemical powder was sprayed and caught Laxma Reddy after he passed the message to Naik about the money.

The ACB officials took Laxma Reddy into custody at the RWS office while his boss Ramana at Hyderabad. The arrested officials would be produced in the ACB court, the DSP informed.