Nearly 10 years after a village secretary of Karimnagar district was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 1,000, the government is finally punishing the accused. In the interim, sources said, both the government and the accused have spent more than the bribe amount on administrative and legal procedures. The case dates back to January 28, 2003 when M. Chandramouli, the then village secretary of Domalakunta gram panchayat of Pegadapally mandal in Karimnagar, was caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau alleg-edly accepting a bribe of Rs 1,000 for doing a ‘favour” in a land mutation case.
The Tribunal for Disciplinary Proceedings found Chandramouli guilty and as punishment it ordered the withholding of his entire pension and service benefits permanently, under rule 9 of APRP Rules, 1980. His review petition was also rejected. Chandramouli appealed to the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal in 2009, which reduced the penalty from total denial to a 75 per cent cut in 2011. The orders are now being implemented by the Panchayat Raj Department. Though not certain about the exact number of cases, an official said, “The procedure is the same, be it a bribe of Rs 1,000 or Rs 1 crore. In some cases, we spend more on the legal battle than the bribe amount.”