BENGALURU: Four days after he was transferred from the post of Bengaluru urban district deputy commissioner (DC), IAS officer J Manjunath was on Monday arrested by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB).
Manjunath is facing allegations of collecting bribes through his staff to settle a land dispute.
ACB officials said they had also arrested two of his office staff — A court assistant with the DC’s office Chetan Kumar alias Chandru, 38, of Malagala, and the deputy tahsildar, identified as Mahesh, 41, of Mandya — on May 21, from the Bengaluru Urban DC’s office in a trap.
Chandru was accepting a bribe of Rs 5 lakh on behalf of a deputy tahsildar, when the ACB officials trapped him. The trap was laid on the basis of a complaint filed by Azam Pasha from Anekal.
Mahesh was handling a dispute over a revenue land in Anekal.
Saying he would pass orders in favour of the complainant, he allegedly sought a bribe of Rs 5 lakh. Pasha approached the ACB and filed a complaint.
ACB officials trapped Chandru with the cash, and, based on his statement that he was receiving the money on behalf of Mahesh, arrested the latter as well.
Further investigation revealed that Mahesh and Chandru demanded and collected the bribe for Manjunath on his direction. ACB officials arrested Manjunath on Monday evening.