A petty shopkeeper in Keelakarai Anna Nagar, who had applied for a temporary licence to sell crackers during Deepavali, was shocked to hear that he had pay bribe to get the licence.
After lodging a complaint with the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (V&AC) police, when the trader handed over ₹15,000 in cash to a public servant, in the rank of a driver in the office of the Sub-Collector here, the police caught the accused red handed.
The police identified the accused as Singaram (53) driver at the Sub-Collector's office. Based on his confession, DSP Unnikrishnan and Inspectors Kumaresan and Rajeswari found that the cash was allegedly intended to be distributed to the higher-ups in the Revenue department through a daffedar.
The daffedar was picked up for interrogation. The presence of the police at the office for over five hours caused anxious moments among the staff and visiting public.
The complainant Dhanasekaran (57) said that he was shocked to learn that some officers in the Fire and Rescue Services Department also demanded bribe for issuing NOC. Though the District Collector K Veera Raghava Rao had in a press release stated that applicants can fill up the form and submit the same online, the revenue and fire officials responsible for issuance of the temporary certificates demanded hefty bribe.
