Hyderabad: Despite nabbing several officials allegedly red-handed in bribery cases, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has seen at least 20 FIRs closed since 2023 after the govt declined to grant sanction for prosecution, opting instead for departmental action or inquiries. The closures include at least five trap cases in which officials were allegedly caught accepting bribes.One such case involves former Mahbubnagar municipal commissioner Vadde Surender who was caught allegedly accepting a Rs 1.65 lakh bribe on Oct 22, 2020. ACB officials allegedly caught him in the act while he was accepting the money to forward quotations to the district collector for approval and issue a work order for setting up a chlorination plant. Surrender was arrested and remanded to judicial custody.But while the ACB director general, following completion of the investigation, submitted a final report in 2021-22 recommending prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the department of municipal administration and urban development (MAUD) decided not to accord sanction for prosecution on Feb 27, 2025. Through a memo, principal secretary M Dana Kishore directed that departmental action be initiated instead. The decision was reiterated on Dec 12, 2025, when secretary to govt TK Sreedevi instructed the ACB to implement the earlier order.On Feb 13, 2026, acting on the govt’s decision, the ACB DG directed the investigating officer to place the GOs before the court and seek closure of the FIR. The ACB special court in Hyderabad accepted the final report and closed the case against Surender on Aug 14.When contacted, an official in the ACB’s Mahbubnagar range said he was unaware of the FIR’s closure and Surender’s current posting.And this is not an isolated case. FIRs in trap cases against G Prabhakar Rao, line inspector; M Sathish Kumar, junior lineman; N Lava Kumar, former Suryapet rural SI; B Charan Singh, assistant divisional engineer with TGSPDCL; and G Saidulu, former Veldanda tahsildar, were also closed between July 2025 and Jan 2026 after the relevant departments denied sanction for prosecution and opted instead for departmental proceedings, inquiries or probes by the commissioner of inquiries, according to records.Several disproportionate assets (DA) cases met a similar fate. Among them was the case against former HMDA director (planning) K Purushotham Reddy. ACB registered a DA case against him in 2018 after allegedly detecting assets worth crores of rupees in his name. He was arrested in Feb 2018. In 2025, the investigating officer sought closure of the FIR after the govt recommended a departmental inquiry instead. The ACB special court accepted the closure report on Nov 11, 2025.Other officials whose DA case FIRs were closed on similar grounds include former insurance medical services (IMS) joint director K Padma, ACP Y Narasimha Reddy and panchayat raj deputy executive engineer B Sudarshan Reddy.ACB cases against a DSP who had worked with HMDA and two inspectors from the Hyderabad police commissionerate, booked in bribery cases in 2021 and 2023, were also closed in 2024 and 2025 after the govt opted for departmental action instead of criminal prosecution.“It is disheartening, especially for the field level staff, to see the FIRs in trap and DA cases that are registered after a lot of groundwork and evidence, being closed as the govt chooses lenient alternatives instead of prosecution,” said an ACB official.When contacted for a comment on the story, another senior ACB officer said “no comments” on any issue pertaining to the bureau.
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