Sessions judge held on graft charge in Telangana

A lower court judge and two advocates were today arrested here by the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on the charge of taking Rs 7.5 lakh bribe for granting bail to an accused in a narcotics case.

First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Radhakrishna Murthy and advocates K Srinivas Rao and G Satish Kumar were arrested after a case was registered based on an order of the Hyderabad High Court, an ACB release said.

The arrests followed searches conducted at the residences of the accused.

The judge and the lawyers, booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act, were produced before a special court for ACB cases which remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days, it said.

The two lawyers had allegedly collected Rs 7.50 lakh from an accused in the narcotics case on behalf of the judge for granting him bail, the release said.

The high court had directed the ACB to register a case and investigate the matter after advocate T Srirangaro approached it alleging that judge Murthy had demanded and accepted bribe through the two lawyers.