Hyderabad: The ACB slethes arrested Medak Additional Collector G. Nagesh, three revenue officials and benamidar on Wednesday for accepting Rs. 1.12 crore alleged bribe for a property owner to issue a no-objection certificate for 112 acre land in Medak district. ACB arrested Narasapur RDO Aruna Reddy, Tahsildar Abdul Sattar, Wasim Ahmed and K. Jeevan Goud in the case.

The high profile arrests happened on a day the Government introduced the Revenue Reforms Bill in the Assembly. Searches were conducted at 12 places in the state, including the houses and offices of Nagesh and other accused in the case. Searches were conducted including Narasapur RDO B. Aruna Reddy and Chilipiched Tahsildar Abdul Sattar, enabling ACB teams to seized Rs. 28 lakhs, half Kg Gold and other incriminating evidence.

According to the ACB officers K. Linga Murthy of Serilingampally lodged a complaint on August 22^nd, stating that on February 29, 2020, he and four others had entered into an agreement of sale of purchase of 112.21 acres of land in Chippalaturthy village of Narasapur mandal in Medak district. Murthy submitted audio recording of conversations about the land deal between him and Nagesh to the ACB, in support of his complaint.

Based on the complaint lodged by the Murthy, the ACB registered a case and obtained warrants from Court to conduct searches at the houses and offices of Nagesh and other revenue officials involved. During the searches conducted at the house of Nagesh in Medak, ACB seized eight cheques issued by the complainant, agreement of sale of the five acres of land made in favour of Nagesh’s Benamidar, K. Jeeva Goud, in addition to other incriminating evidence. At Aruna Reddy houses in Ghatkesar and Narasapur, Rs. 28 lakh cash and half Kg gold were founded.

According to the ACB Deputy Director M. Ramana Kumar, said the land 112.21 acres required for registration, which is the list of 22- A prohibitory land, the complainant gave an application to Chilipiched Tahsildar Abdul Sattar to issue NOC for registration. On July 31^st Nagesh demanded Rs. one crore bribe from Murthy for expediting the NOC issue process and took Rs. 19.5 lakh cash from the complainant as initial installment on the same day. On August 7^th, Nagesh had obtained the second installment of Rs. 20.5 lakh cash. For the remaining Rs. 72 lakh bribe, instead cash, Nagesh had obtained Agreement of Sale in the name of his Benami K. Jeevan Goud, on August 21^st. Nagesh also took eight blank signed checks.