Man Burns Bribe Money To Evade Arrest In Telangana: Anti-Corruption Official

A man, who was instructed by a Tahsildar to collect "bribe" amount of Rs 5 lakh, allegedly burnt the currency notes at his house in Telangana's Nagarkurnool district on Tuesday to escape being caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), the agency said.

While 46 currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination (amounting to Rs 92,000) of the total bribe amount of Rs 5 lakh were completely burnt and the remaining notes in the denomination of Rs 500 and few in Rs 2,000 were partially burnt, a senior ACB official said.

The Tahsildar of Veldanda Mandal, had allegedly asked the man (a private person) to collect the bribe amount of Rs 5 lakh at his residence from the complainant in exchange of an official favour, an ACB release said.

The official favour was to issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC) and forward it to the Mines and Geology department for the grant of a quarry lease licence to the complainant.

Based on the complaint, the ACB officials took up the investigation.

At the time the trap was laid, on suspecting the arrival of the ACB officials, the man bolted the door of his house from inside and burnt the bribe money on a gas stove in the kitchen to escape from being caught.

ACB officials could recover only partially burnt currency notes from the man's house and took him into custody.

The Tahsildar was also subsequently taken into custody for demanding and accepting the bribe amount, an ACB official said adding a case was registered and further probe is on.