Lokayukta officials caught a Panchayat Raj Engineering Department engineer and seized cash and valuables from his house in Belagavi district.
The officials caught Duradundeshwar Bannur, who is an Assistant Executive Officer of the Panchayat Raj Engineering Department in Khanapur, on Tuesday on the charge of accepting bribes.
Acting on a complaint from gram panchayat members, the officials arrested Mr. Bannur when he was accepting the bribe. He had demanded and was accepting the consideration to clear some pending bills of MGNREGA.
The officials also seized cash and valuables of around ₹27 lakh from his house in Yallur in Belagavi district. Investigation is going on.
Earlier this month, Lokayukta officers caught a junior engineer of Panchayat Raj Engineering Department. Pandit Wagh of Raibag sub-division was caught red-handed while he was accepting bribe from a contractor.
Contractor Muttappa Laxman Bajantri had filed the complaint. The junior engineer had demanded and accepted bribe to speed up the work of preparing bills and forwarding them to a higher officer for approval and sanction. He had demanded ₹12,000 and accepted it.
Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Hanamantaraya supervised the operations. The team included Deputy Superintendent of Police Pushpalata, Circle Inspector of Police Niranjan Patil, staff members Ravi Mavarakar, Rajshree Bhosale, Abhijita Jamakhandi and N.M. Math.
