Village officer held on bribery charge

The Kochi unit of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) arrested a village officer from Ayyampuzha near Angamaly on Wednesday on charge of demanding and accepting a bribe from a widow for conducting the transfer of registry.

VACB trap

The arrested officer was identified as Sudheer R., Ayyampuzha village officer and a resident of Aluva. He was caught in a trap laid by the VACB team led by DySP M.N. Ramesh.

The complainant, Aneesha Mol, had approached village office for completing the

pokkuvaravu (transfer of registry) proceedings. However, the accused allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs. 2,000 for sending the file to the tahsildar to complete the process.

The complainant contacted VACB officials who gave her chemically marked currency notes to hand over to the officer.

VACB officials, who were waiting outside, stormed the office and arrested the officer as soon as he accepted the currencies from the petitioner.

He was then taken to the VACB office for further investigations.

The accused, who was being interrogated, would be produced before the Vigilance Court in Muvattupuzha on Thursday.