Fire officer caught with Rs 3.5 lakh bribe money

VIJAYAWADA: In a big catch officials of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday trapped an assistant divisional fire officer B NarasimhaRao while he was taking bribe from a hospital owner in his office chambers here. ACBDSP M NarasimhaRao personally monitored the trap and arrested the accused.
The management of a 120-bed hospital in Tenali applied for an NOC from fire services department about four months ago.The director general of fire services, Hyderabad, nominated a committee consisting of divisional fire safety officer P Venkata Ramana (Vijayawada), Guntur district fire safety officer B Nageswara Rao and assistant divisional fire safety officer B Narasimha Rao to inspect the hospital and send a report for granting of NOC.
Nageswara Rao and Narasimha Rao visited the hospital on May 3. Subsequently, Narasimha Rao called up the hospital managing director M Harish and demanded Rs.3.5 lakh for processing his application.
When Harish requested him to slash the price, Narasimhan Rao reportedly threatened to send an adverse report which would result in the closure of the hospital. The hospital MD approached ACB officials, who laid a trap for the fire officer.
Harish handed over Rs 3.5 lakh to Narasimha Rao following the suggestion of the ACB team. Within no time, the ACB team caught Narasimha Rao red-handed with the bribe amount.