Official facing trial caught accepting bribe

An officer in the Municipal Administration Department, who is facing trial, was caught red-handed by the sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Bureau while accepting a bribe of Rs. 50,000 in his office here on Thursday.

The accused, Yarlagadda Siva Shankara Rao, has been working as Finance Advisor and Chief Accounts Officer in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation. According to the ACB officials, Mr. Shankara Rao demanded the bribe from the complainant D. Nitish Chandra Kumar, a manager working for a VMC contractor.

Mr. Shankara Rao sought the bribe to process the contractor’s check worth Rs. 38 lakh towards drainage work executed by the company.

Ironically, Mr. Sankara Rao is facing trial before the Special Court of ACB cases, Vijayawada, in a case of corruption booked against him on September 9, 2014. He was then working as Examiner of Accounts in the Rajamahendravaram Municipal Corporation and was caught accepting Rs. 20,000 from Palli Thammayya Naidu, a civil contractor.

ACB Director-General R.P. Thakur wondered how an under trial officer could be posted in such a prominent position. “I shall take this matter to the notice of the government,” Mr. Thakur told The Hindu .

Accused got

promotion too

After being caught by the ACB in 2014, Mr. Sankara Rao was placed under suspension until the conclusion of all criminal and disciplinary proceedings against him as per the Rule 8 (2) (a) of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1991, a GO said.

Despite this, he was elevated as the Chief Accounts Officer in the much bigger Municipal Corporation.

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