Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption unit of Theni district registered a case of corruption to the tune of Rs. 97.33 lakh against former Assistant Director of Town Panchayat in Theni district N. Vijayalakshmi and former executive officers of 10 town panchayats in the district for buying LED bulbs at an inflated rate from two contractors.
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The contractors R. Jamuna and Ravi of Uthampalayam have also been booked under various Sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and under various Sections of Indian Penal Code for criminal breach of trust, forgery, forgery for purpose of cheating, using as genuine a forged document.
Inspector of Police C. Jeyapriya of DVAC unit, Theni, has registered the first information report on June 10 in which the former EOs of Town Panchayats of Andipatti, Thenkarai, Veerapandi, K. Pudupatti, Uthamapalayam, Kombai, Mela Chokkanathapuram, Boothipuram, Devathanapatti and Andipatti for having bought 1,300 LED bulbs of 36 watts at the rate of 9,987 in 2019-20 while the market rate for the bulbs was only in the range of Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 2,500.
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The FIR said that the officials had swindled roughly around Rs. 7,487 per LED bulb.
The DVAC also charged that the officials had not followed Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tender Act procedures.
Tender schedules were obtained from the same person in different names. While the bulbs were purcharged at a cost of Rs. 1.29 crore, roughly Rs. 97.33 lakh was the undue advantage obtained by the 11 accused officials with the help of the two contractors.
They were charged with having prepared forged bills, forged quotations and documents and caused wrongful loss to the Government exchequer to the tune of Rs. 97.33 lakh.