Forest officer in ACB net for accepting bribe in Andhra's West Godavari

A forest officer was caught with bribe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths here in Devarapalli village in Devarapalli Mandal on Wednesday.

The forest official caught by ACB has been identified as Ramesh Kuma. The official had asked a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a person named B Srinu on October 2, ACB said in a statement.

The ACB officials laid trap to catch him. The forest section officer took the bribe amount, but somehow got suspicious, and tried to burn that money. But the ACB cops caught that money and filed the case on him.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of ACB, K Ranga Raju said that "B Srinu resident of Sabbavaram, a town of Visakhapatnam, has been constructing a house at Devarapalli. He bought trees from local farmers for house construction purpose. He thought to apply for permission, after cutting the trees into the wood."

"Meanwhile, Devarapalli forest section officer Ramesh Kumar saw the cut wood on September 30. Kumar told Srinu that he (Srinu) would incur expenses in lakhs of Rupees if they will file a case, and asked Srinu to give a bribe of Rs 10,000 on October 2. Srinu told him (Kumar) that he has no money, but Ramesh kept on calling him for a bribe. Then, Srinu complained to ACB. We registered a case, and we came here to catch him red-handed on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the section officer gave the money used in the trap to his wife and asked to burn those notes. His wife put the notes on fire on the gas stove. We immediately rushed and seized that cash," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )