Mangaluru: Officials of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) here took into custody two officials for accepting bribe to open financial bid relating to the construction of two rooms and a toilet for a college building.

The officials who were caught when receiving bribe happen to be Suryanarayana Bhat, technical assistant of the department of rural development and panchayat raj here, and Sudheen, assistant engineer.

Rs 26,000 was recovered from them in addition to the bribe amount, it is learnt.

Adam, son of Abubakar from Bapunagara, Mudigere taluk, had submitted bid for construction of two rooms and a toilet in the government PU College at Kalasa, Chikkamagaluru district. The tender had been submitted by Adam on behalf of his father, who is aged. Adam has completed BE (civil) engineering degree and has been doing contract work with his father since the last ten years.

When the technical bid was opened, it transpired that the tender had gone in favour of Abubakar. After this, Suryanarayana Bhat had called Adam by using a cellphone belonging to Sudheen, informing that superintending engineer of the office, Raveendra Kini, was demanding bribe of Rs 50,000 for opening the financial bid of this tender. After discussions, Bhat informed Adam that the amount can be negotiated as the contract is towards building, and asked Adam to come with 50 percent of the said amount.

Adam approached ACB officials here and filed complaint against the three officials named above. Under the guidance of senior officials, ACB officials trapped the two officials. When they visited the office of panchayat raj department the city corporation building on Friday evening, they found Suryanarayana Bhat and Sudheen accepting bribe of Rs 25,000 from Adam. The ACB officials conducted raid and found Rs 26,000 additionally in the bag pertaining to Suryanarayana Bhat.

ACB superintendent of police, Shruthi N S, deputy superintendent of police, Sudheer M Hegde, Udupi deputy superintendent of police, Dinakar Shetty, inspector, Yogish Kumar and others were involved with this operation.