Telangana cop caught taking bribe day after getting best constable award

Bribe after reward

A day after he received the “Best Police” award from his district collector on Independence Day, a constable in Telangana was nabbed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for demanding and receiving a bribe. Constable Tirupati Reddy of Mahabubnagar district was caught by the ACB accepting a bribe of Rs 17,000 from a sand tractor owner. While the tractor owner had a valid permit to transport sand, Reddy demanded Rs 20,000. The driver approached the ACB and officials laid a trap. Reddy was arrested after the driver handed in Rs 17,000 to him on their next meeting.

Gambhir’s new pitch

Cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir (pictured)  is learnt to have roped in the services of a digital agency to help him establish his political credentials online. Apart from managing his digital footprint, the agency will help him prepare his strategy for the Delhi assembly elections, due next year.

Gautam Gambhir

Though a tad early, his party colleagues suggested the East Delhi MP be projected as the chief ministerial candidate for the BJP in the pre-poll campaign. The agency has worked with sports and film personalities; this would be its first big break in the political domain.

Speculation... and some more 

President Ramnath Kovind hosted the “at home” reception on Independence Day last Thursday. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the creation of the post of chief of defence staff, or CDS, those attending the event speculated which one of the three defence chiefs would get the job. The consensus candidate was Army Chief Bipin Rawat, and many present at the event queued up to get their photographs clicked with the general. The president’s press advisor, Ashok Malik, who has announced that he would soon leave his current job, tweeted that the crucial question was where the CDS would figure in the Indian warrant of precedence. “I am guessing cabinet secretary equivalent or minister of state equivalent,” he said. Some at Kovind’s reception also speculated about Malik’s possible successor as the president’s press advisor.