ACB officials in their remand report of the arrested Warangal DSP Mr Ramprasad revealed that the police officer had negotiated the bribe deal on behalf of the Mahaboobabad Congress MLA M. Kavitha with the liquor syndicates.

When Kavitha demanded a bribe of Rs.25 lakh from the syndicate to allow them to sell liquor at their preferred rates, the liquor mafia said they could not pay that much amount to her. “After they failed to pay the amount, two of their shops were forced to close down. They were allowed to open only after Ramprasad successfully negotiated a deal on her behalf,” ACB said in the remand report.

The report further says that Ramprasad himself collected a monthly Mamool of Rs.45,000 but demanded the syndicate to hike it to Rs.1 lakh. Later, he successfully collected the Mamool arrears from the syndicate leaders.

Ramprasad, along with seven other senior police officials, were arrested by the ACB on Sunday and the ACB court had remanded them to two weeks of judicial custody.

The other arrested police officials also used to collect monthly bribes ranging from Rs.20, 000 to Rs.30, 000 from the syndicate leaders. They are now cooling their heels in the Chanchalguda prison in Hyderabad.

200 police officers to be arrested soon

Sources said the ACB has a list of more than 200 police officials linked to liquor syndicate bribes and the state apex investigating agency will arrest them in several rounds soon.

The list contains more than 100 circle inspectors and sub inspectors, 89 DSPs and Additional DSPs and some ‘Constable Collectors’ who collected the monthly Mamools from the syndicate. (J)