The Muvattupuzha Vigilance Court on Tuesday ordered a quick verification of charges against Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB) Superintendent R. Nishanthini and Deputy Superintendent Bijumon for allegedly not initiating proper action against a public servant who was allegedly caught red-handed while accepting a bribe.
Considering a petition filed by one Sujithkumar V.S., P. Madhavan, Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, observed that the allegation against the officers, both attached to the Ernakulam unit of the VACB, challenged the trustworthiness of the bureau itself.
The complaint
According to the complainant, the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) of Muvattupuzha, Abdul Kareem, had demanded Rs. 30,000 as a bribe for renewing the permit of a bus owned by his father. Following this, he had contacted Mr. Bijumon, who decided to lay a trap to catch the RTO in the act of accepting the money.
As directed by the VACB, Mr. Sujithkumar met the RTO on January 2, when the latter allegedly repeated his demand. Wearing a button camera and wrist watch camera given by the VACB, Mr. Sujithkumar entered the RTO’s cabin the next day and handed over Rs. 21,000 to the official.
The complaint said that even as the RTO took the money and handed it over to an agent, Mr. Bijumon and his team entered the cabin and caught the officer red-handed.
The complainant, who believed that the VACB would register a case against the RTO, contacted the VACB later, after seeing no action. However, the VACB allegedly changed its version of the incident and claimed that the entire incident was just a surprise check, thereby attempting to lessen the gravity of the offence.
The Vigilance SP later sought the approval of the VACB Director for registering a case and the Director ordered a quick verification of the charge against the RTO.
On Tuesday, the Vigilance Court, issuing the order, observed that even though no supporting materials were produced to show that a recording of the incident was made using the equipment given by the VACB, the allegation was of a serious nature.
The court ordered the Director of the VACB to conduct a quick verification of the allegation by a senior officer and file a report before July 30.
