Official caught ‘paying bribe’ to RTI activist

THE HINDU 

This case was something new even for the Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths who routinely trap government officials taking bribe. On Friday, a government official was caught paying a bribe to an Right to Information (RTI) activist to not dig into a particular case.

Honnappa, a shirastedar in Devanahalli Taluk Office was caught by ACB sleuths when he was allegedly paying a bribe of Rs. 50,000 to the RTI activist who had tipped off the sleuths.

The activist, while going through certain land documents, had turned suspicious about an entry for a 19-acre land parcel that it was DC converted, for non-agricultural purposes. He soon applied under the RTI Act for relevant documents. While the DC office replied that the said survey number was not converted, the local tahsildar office replied that the documents were missing. Intrigued, the activist started digging further, when Mr. Honnappa contacted him. “The shirastedar contacted the RTI activist and offered him a bribe of Rs. 50,000 for not to dig into the matter further. The activist pretended to accept the offer, but contacted us and organised for a trap,” said M.A. Saleem, IGP, ACB. Officials said that while Mr. Honnappa has been arrested and investigations will be done into the particular land transactions which he tried to hush up.

“A shirastedar alone is unlikely to carry out a forgery of land conversion document. Other officials are likely to be involved in the case. We will probe into the case and register a separate case if any fraud is revealed,” said a senior ACB official.