Tahsildar sent to 4-year jail for graft

MYSURU: A city court has sent a tahsildar to four-year jail term for taking bribe in 2011, and slapped a notice on the complainant for trying to mislead the prosecution by changing his version during the trial.
Raghumurthy, who was serving as the tahsildar in Ramanagaram, was on Monday remanded to jail. He has also been asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000, failing which he will have to undergo an additional jail term of two months.
Raghumurthy was caught red-handed while accepting Rs 50,000 from Muniraju, the complainant from Kengeri.
Muniraju had bought 3 acres of land in Madalli in Mysuru taluk from Ramesh in 2011. Following the death of Ramesh during the transaction, Muniraju applied for a khata in the name of Ramesh. Raghumurthy, who was then the Shirestedhar in Mysuru taluk office, had demanded Rs 5 lakh for the paper work. After Muniraju approached Lokayukta police, the latter laid a trap and the official was caught red-handed near Ramakrishnanagar Circle while receiving the first instalment of Rs 50,000 from Muniraju in September 2011.
Special public prosecutor Muthamma Poonacha told TOI that Raghumurthy, who came in a car to the place, asked Muniraju to keep the cash inside the car. After Muniraju obliged, Lokayukta sleuths caught the official.
During the trial, Raghurmurthy argued that someone kept the cash inside the car when was he was pouring a liquid waste on the roadside after parking his car. The court did not buy his argument, and convicted and sentenced him for the offence.
Meanwhile, Muniraju tried to mislead the prosecution by changing his statement during the trial. At the time of cross-examination, Muniraju claimed that Raghumurthy took money from him and gave a detailed explanation of the scene. But during the trial, he changed his version, maybe to protect the accused. The court took serious notice of the same and slapped a notice on him.
The III additional court judge S Sudindranth sent Raghumurthy to three-year jail term and Rs 25,000 fine for charges under Section 7 of PC Act 1988 and four years in jail and Rs 25,000 fine for charges under Section 13(1)d of the act. Both the prison sentence will run concurrently, the special public prosecutor stated.