Overview
- Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau officials detained DTO Banoth Bhadru Naik and his driver Banoth Aravind on August 6 at the Jagtial transport office after recovering a Rs.22,000 payoff.
- Investigators say the cash was demanded to drop a vehicle-seizure case, waive fines on a JCB, and return two confiscated mobile phones to the complainant.
- The sting followed an initial Rs.12,000 payment on August 4, prompting the victim to alert the ACB and set up a trap for the remaining amount.
- A chemical residue test on Aravind’s right hand tested positive for traces of the seized notes, and his confession under interrogation led to Naik’s arrest.
- Both men were produced before the special ACB court in Karimnagar and remanded to judicial custody as part of the bureau’s ongoing statewide graft crackdown.