The Vice-Chancellor demanded the bribe of ₹50,000 as reward for allotting examination centres to the complainant's college.
Following routine procedure, Ravinder's hands also tested positive for phenolphthalein. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana on Saturday, 17 June, arrested the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Telangana University on charges of corruption.
The ACB reportedly caught the V-C Dachepalli Ravinder red-handed while he was accepting a bribe from the promoter of an educational institution.
This comes after the ACB, on 13 June, nabbed three people — a superintendent, an accounts officer, and an accountant — working at the District Medical and Health Office in the act of accepting a bribe of ₹10,000 from a CCTV technician for sanctioning the renting of a vehicle.
The ACB said that it laid a trap at the house of D Ravinder at Kimtee Colony in the Tarnaka locality of Hyderabad on Saturday morning.
The move came after the bureau reportedly received a complaint from Dasari Shankar, president of the Sri Shirdi Sai Educational Society in the Nizamabad district.
He told the ACB that Ravinder had demanded a bribe in lieu of allotting the examination centre to the coviety’s college.
At around 10.50 am, when Ravinder asked for and accepted the bribe of ₹50,000 from Shankar, the ACB caught him red-handed.
The bribe amount of ₹50,000 was recovered from his almirah in the master bedroom, the ACB said.
Following routine procedures, Ravinder’s hands also tested positive for phenolphthalein, a chemical that is primarily used in laboratories to determine whether a chemical is acidic or alkaline in nature.
Among other things, it is also used in many anti-corruption cases to determine if a person had handled contraband.
It is a smooth white powder generally applied in small quantities on currency notes, and other objects that are likely to come in contact with the hands or pockets of the target, resulting in its transfer.
The object, when washed with sodium carbonate or lime water, turns pink, immediately confirming the touching of the currency notes.
Meanwhile, after the arrest, the accused VC of Telangana University was produced before the Principal Special Judge Special Police Establishment (SPE) and ACB Cases Court at Hyderabad.
South First tried to reach out to the University Registrar M Yadagiri to find out if any action had been taken by the university against the V-C, among other things. However, there has been no response yet.
As per the 2021 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, 177 cases were registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act and related sections of the IPC in 2019.
However, this dipped to 84 in 2020 and 83 in 2021, the report said.
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