UPI trail lands 3rd accused in CMRF graft case, court rejects bail pleas | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: A bribery case linked to the disbursal of Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) cheques has widened with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arresting a third accused, the husband of a secretariat employee. The development came to light after a court recently dismissed his bail plea, along with those of the two other accused already in judicial custody.On Sept 10, ACB arrested A Raghavender (36), an outsourcing employee in the general administration department, and M Vinod Kumar (53), a senior assistant in the Telangana State Industrial Development Corporation. The duo was caught at a place of worship near the secretariat while allegedly accepting a Rs 1 lakh bribe from a complainant.According to ACB, the accused demanded the money to hand over a CMRF cheque for Rs 2 lakh and facilitate the processing of medical bills for securing an additional sanction of over Rs 13 lakh under the relief fund. Both were remanded to judicial custody on Sept 11.During the course of the investigation, ACB arrested a third accused, N Ramakrishna Rao, on Sept 21. Rao, the husband of a govt employee, was also remanded in judicial custody.Seeking bail, Rao argued that he was neither in direct contact with the complainant nor involved in the trap operation in which the other two accused were allegedly caught red-handed while accepting the bribe amount.However, in its counter, ACB claimed that Rao had reportedly received Rs 40,000 through a UPI transaction from co-accused Raghavender for facilitating the processing of the complainant’s CMRF application and issuance of the cheque.“Through his wife, Rao was acquainted with secretariat employees and requested them to process the genuine medical bills of the complainant, a white ration card holder, who underwent liver transplantation. For that, he demanded Rs 40,000 from the co-accused and received the same through UPI,” alleged an ACB official.ACB told the court that the UPI transaction and call records between Raghavender and Rao formed part of the evidence collected so far. The agency also pointed out that further investigation, including the recording of statements from the complainant and witnesses, remained pending.Taking note of these submissions, the court dismissed Rao’s bail petition in the second week of Oct. Around the same time, the bail pleas of the other two accused were also rejected. All three accused continue to remain in judicial custody.