Three motor vehicle inspectors and four touts were listed as accused by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) sleuths, who had seized unaccounted cash from KK Nagar RTO during an inspection last Thursday.
Chennai:
The motor vehicle inspectors named in the FIR are S Saravanan, P Prabhakaran and R Vijaya, while the touts listed as accused were identified as K Chinnamani, E Yuvaraj, M Ashok and V Viswanathan, said an officer.
Initially, it was reported the DVAC team that conducted the surprise check at the RTO office in KK Nagar on Thursday night seized cash over Rs 3.4 lakh.
After the checking the accounts, the officers have found that the unaccounted component of the seizure was about Rs 1.88 lakh.
On that day, the vigilance team had seized Rs 36,460 from Motor Vehicles (MV) inspector Saravanan, Rs 33,280 from Prabakaran and Rs 38,210 from Vijaya, the DVAC FIR said.
The rest of the amount was seized from touts. Interestingly, the sleuths also found a cloth bag containing Rs 28,110, which is yet to be claimed by anyone.
When the DVAC team went to the RTO office based on a complaint from V Sumathi, deputy collector/district inspection cell officer, the RTO was not present as he had gone to attend a meeting of transport commissioner.
DVAC officers also noted that they have received several bribery complaints against the officials at the KK Nagar RTO, alleging that they demanded money from driving schools as well as for registration of new vehicle.
Insiders say trapping the RTO officials is difficult, as they do not collect money directly from the customers, but instead prefers to go through the tout route.