New Delhi:
Telangana’s Anti-Corruption Bureau on Friday raided home of an official, who ironically had won ‘best tehsildar’ award two years back. According to latest media reports, the ACB team had raided the home of V Lavanya, tehsildar or mandal revenue officer. She is an official at Keshampet in Ranga Reddy district of the state. The ACB team recovered Rs 93.5 lakh in cash and 400 grams of gold from Lavanya’s Hyderabad house. According to an NDTV report, the ACB was probing a case about a village revenue officer accepting Rs 4 lakh in alleged bribe from a farmer for ‘correcting his land records.’
It was then, the ACB team realised that this was just a proverbial tip of the iceberg. After investigation, the anti-graft bureau found that the total amount paid by the farmer was split into two parts - Rs 5 lakh for the tehsildar and Rs 3 lakh for village revenue officer. After putting the village revenue officer on surveillance, the ACB team got to know that he had informed about the bribe to Lavanya. It is at this point that the ACB team detained the tehsildar. Even after intense grilling, she reportedly denied all the allegations. Soon after, the ACB team raided her house and recovered all the cash and jewellery.
Her husband is said to be a superintendent with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the NDTV report said. Earlier, a video had gone viral that showed a farmer begging mercy from Lavanya. He fell at her feet and asked for help in the land record correction. Reportedly the farmer was asked to pay lakhs in bribe to get the correct records. After the raid, the ACB team is also probing Lavanya’s tenure record and other dealings.
