India News | Additional Collector, 4 Others Take Rs 1.17 Cr for NOC; Held

Hyderabad, Sept 9 (PTI): An Additional Collector and four others were on Wednesday arrested for allegedly taking Rs 1.17 crore as bribe from a person for issuing No Objection Certificate (NOC) pertaining to registration of land purchased by him.

The five were taken into custody by the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) in Medak district of Telangana based on a complaint filed by the person on August 22.

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In the complaint, the person stated that he was compelled to pay the bribe to the Additional Collector and others to get the NOC and to complete pending survey work pertaining to the 112.21 acres of land purchased by him in Medak district, according to an ACB press release here. The Additional Collector demanded Rs 1.12 crore at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per acre to issue NOC and obtained Rs 40 lakh from the complainant in two installments, the release said. For the remaining amount, which the complainant could not arrange, the Additional Collector obtained agreement of sale of five acres out of the land purchased by the complainant in lieu of cash in the name of his benami and took eight blank cheques from the complainant as surety for the registration of land, it said. A Junior Assistant at the office of Survey and Land Records took Rs 5 lakh from the complainant as instructed by the Additional Collector as share of the bribe of other officials who processed the file (of NOC) and out of this he paid Rs one lakh each to a woman Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) and a Tahsildar, the release said. On Wednesday, the ACB sleuths conducted searches at the Additional Collector's house and found the eight blank cheques of the complainant, agreement of sale in the name of the benamidar and other incriminating material. During the searches conducted at the RDO's house, unaccounted cash totalling Rs 28 lakh, half kg of gold ornaments were found, it said. In this case, the Additional Collector, RDO, Tahasildar, a Junior Assistant besides a private person (benami) of the Additional Collector were arrested, the ACB release added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)