Tribal Welfare Engineer-in-Chief nabbed taking ₹25 lakh bribe

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested Tribal Welfare Department Engineer-in-Chief, Sabbavarapu Srinivas, while he was allegedly accepting ₹25 lakh bribe from a contractor.

According to ACB officials the engineer had demanded ₹5 crore from a Visakhapatnam-based contractor for clearing bills bills related to works executed in the Srikakulam, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Parvathipuram Manyam districts. When the contractor expressed his inability to pay the huge amount, the accused asked him to pay an initial amount of ₹25 lakh.

Acting on the complaint, the ACB Vijayawada Range officers caught the engineer red-handed at his office, while he was accepting the bribe amount.

In 2001, ACB officials had registered a disproportionate assets case against Srinivas and he was facing trial in a trap case booked in 2014. Srinivas will be produced before the ACB Special Court, in Vijayawada.