A clerk attached to the Mylom grama panchayat in the district was arrested by the Kottarakara police on charge of cheating the exchequer. The clerk, S. Ashok Kumar, 42, was in charge of tax collection. Kottarakara Deputy Superintendent of Police B. Krishnakumar said the arrested person had been manipulating tax receipt books. Following complaints from tax payers the Directorate of Panchayats conducted a probe and found that the allegations were prima facie true.
The case was entrusted to Mr. Krishnakumar for further probe. The probe revealed that after collecting tax, the suspect entered a smaller figure in the books. The fraud came to light when people who had paid their tax dues received tax notices from the panchayat. He was arrested under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He was produced in a magistrate court on Saturday and remanded in the Kottarakara sub-jail.
