Andhra Tribal Welfare Engineer Caught: Sabbavarapu Srinivas, the top engineer of the tribal welfare department in Andhra Pradesh, was caught taking a bribe of ₹25 lakh in his office at Vijayawada just weeks before his retirement. Officers from the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) trapped him red-handed on Thursday after a contractor filed a complaint. The bribe was taken in return for clearing big pending bills worth around ₹35.5 crore, reports The Hindu. These bills were connected to the construction of seven Ekalavya Model Residential Schools.
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The complaint was made by Cherukuri Krishnamraju, a manager with Sathya Sai Constructions based in Visakhapatnam. He told the ACB that Srinivas was forcing him to pay money so he could get his bills approved.
Krishnamraju said he had taken loans to finish the school construction works and was struggling to pay the interest. Left with no choice, he approached the ACB for help. A trap was then planned, and Srinivas got caught while accepting ₹25 lakh as advance payment.
According to ACB officials he was caught at his office in the Vijayawada by two ACB Deputy Superintndents of Police Subba Rao from Vijayawada and Ramana Murthy from Srikakulam. “He is likely to be produced before the ACB Court in Vijayawada on Friday,” the officers said.
Not His First Time In Trouble
This was not the first time that Srinivas got into trouble with the law. He has already been involved in two other corruption related cases with the ACB. Back in 2001, when he was working as an assistant executive engineer in Visakhapatnam SE office, he was found with wealth that he could not explain. The ACB had then booked him for having assets more than what his known income allowed. That case is still going through internal department checks.
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Later in 2014, while working as assistant engineer at Seethampeta in Srikakulam district, he was again trapped by the ACB. He had asked for bribes then too, again for clearing bills. That case also hasn’t reached a final decision and is still under investigation by the department.
Including this one Srinivas has been caught by ACB three times in total. It has brought up serious concerns about how officers like him continue to stay in power despite having corruption cases against them in the past. Many are now asking how such officers are allowed to work in top positions when they have a track record like this.
