Commissioner of Vellore Corporation T. Kumar was caught red-handed taking bribe from a contractor on Wednesday. Based on a complaint from the contractor, DVAC sleuths nabbed him at his office, seizing unaccounted cash of ₹10.44 lakh and jewellery weighing 26 sovereigns from his office and residence.
A team led by M. Balasubramanian, Additional Superintendent of Police, DVAC, arrested Kumar, 54, following a complaint from T. Balaji, 30, a resident of Velapadi. The Corporation had outsourced the work of mosquito-control measures to workers from Mr. Balaji’s agency. The Corporation had to release a bill for paying salary to the workers for the months of May, June and July this year, police said.
“The bill was for an amount of ₹10,90,200. The Commissioner initially demanded a bribe of ₹22,000 to release the cheque for the amount,” a police official said.
Mr. Balaji bargained with the Commissioner to reduce the amount and they settled at ₹20,000.
He approached the DVAC on Tuesday and lodged a complaint against the Commissioner, following which DVAC officials conducted an inquiry.
Booby trap
To trap the official, the police gave Mr. Balaji chemical-coated currency notes to hand over. The contractor met the Commissioner at his office in the Corporation’s building on Infantry Road. Soon, the DVAC team entered the office and conducted a test to confirm if Kumar had indeed received the cash. As the result confirmed that he had received the cash, the DVAC officials arrested him.
The team proceeded to conduct a check at the office and later carried out searches at his residence at Krishna Nagar. “We seized unaccounted cash of ₹1,04,000 from his office. On searching his house, we found unaccounted cash to the tune of ₹9.40 lakh and new gold jewellery weighing 26 sovereigns. We also seized a currency counting machine from his house,” the official said.
The Corporation’s building usually wears a deserted look especially since the term of the council members came to an end last year. Similar was the situation when the DVAC team entered the Commissioner’s office on the first floor of the building on Wednesday morning.
“It took at least half an hour for the Corporation staff to know that the DVAC team was inside the Commissioner’s room,” an officer said. Kumar took charge as Commissioner of the city’s corporation in early 2016.
