Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

CBI arrests its officer on bribery charges

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM DEC. 6. In the first case of its kind, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) detained its own IPS officer of Deputy Inspector-General rank here on Saturday on charges of his demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs. 5 lakhs.

On a tip-off, some 15 officials from the CBI's anti-corruption headquarters in New Delhi and conducted raid and detained the Deputy Inspector-General of CBI, Visakhapatnam, A. Sudhakar Rao, who was relieved of the post only on Wednesday, after his repatriation to Sikkim as DIG of armed battalion at Gangtok.

After a high-voltage drama, Mr. Sudhakar Rao was whisked away before dawn in a car by the CBI sleuths to a private guesthouse for interrogation. The CBI DIG, Sudhir Pratap Singh, who led the raids, said that on a specific complaint that the accused was repeatedly demanding money and threatening to implicate the complainant in a `false' case, they registered a regular case at 8 p.m. on Friday and searched the MVP Colony residence of the accused police officer as well as the CBI office located in the same colony.

A trap was laid and a woman public prosecutor of a mahila court was caught along with her maidservant while accepting Rs.5 lakhs in cash as the first instalment of a total of Rs.10 lakhs allegedly demanded on behalf of Mr. Rao.

Mr. Singh said: "We have enough evidence to prove that the amount was collected by the public prosecutor on behalf of the accused.''

The CBI team carried out searches at three premises in the city and recovered Rs.7.4 lakhs in cash in the officer's house, fixed deposits/bonds and jewellery, totally worth Rs. 3 lakhs. An independent house, three flats and three plots were also found in his name during the searches, Mr. Singh said.

Along with Sudhakar Rao, who is an IPS Officer of 1989 batch and was on deputation to the CBI here from 1996, the mahila court public prosecutor and her maidservant were also arrested and produced in the Special CBI Court.

On being contacted on his mobile phone when the search operation was in progress, Mr. Rao told The Hindu that "something is being worked out and I am not sure whether there will be a briefing on the case.'' Later, he told reporters at a private guesthouse on the Beach Road that "it's a conspiracy and I will prove my innocence."

In a press release issued here, the CBI alleged that during the searches, they found that the IPS officer was using the woman public prosecutor of the mahila court as a conduit for collecting bribe.

The complainant was a Senior Divisional Manager of the United India Insurance Company Limited, Visakhapatnam, against whom the CBI, Visakhapatnam, had registered a case and his house was searched on October 30.

Even as the raids were continuing, the CBI registered a case against Mr. Rao under Section 120-B of IPC read with Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988.

A CBI source said that the house of Mr. Rao's mother was also searched.

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