Land Ceiling Officials Convicted

The principal special judge for SPE and ACB Cases, Hyderabad, convicted and sentenced 3 Urban Land Ceiling officials to 1 year rigorous imprisonment, on charges of corruption, on Wednesday.

Urban Land Ceiling Surveyor Mohd Qudrathullah, Deputy Tahsildar G Siddaiah and Special Tahsildar B Narsing Rao were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 1 year, and a fine of Rs. 1,000 was imposed on each of them, under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The officials were also sentenced to undergo a further 1 year prison sentence under Sections 13(2) r/w 13 (1) (d) of PC Act, 1988. The sentences will run concurrently. In case they default on the fines, they will have to undergo simple imprisonment for 2 months each.

Earlier, the tainted officials were trapped by the ACB sleuths when they demanded and accepted a bribe of Rs. 10,000 from a complainant, M R Deepak, for issuing the urban Land Ceiling Clearance Certificate to his father for getting municipal sanction for construction of a house.

In another case, the special judge for SPE and ACB Cases, Vijayawada, convicted Special Deputy Tahsildar Maddula Mohan Rao, Tribal Welfare, KR Puram in West Godavari district, and sentenced him to 6 months of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 2,000 for demanding and accepting bribes.

Maddula was trapped on 10 December 2003 by the ACB sleuths, when he demanded and accepted a bribe of Rs. 4,000 from a complainant for showing official favour of preparing Parawar remarks and certificate in a case related to a writ petition in the High Court.

Courtesy: INN