Once cornered, the officer himself fished out four envelopes containing Rs 1.23 lakh from his pant pockets and handed them over to the vigilance team, who registered graft case against both the inspector and the subordinate, a special sub-inspector.

When the DVAC sleuths reached the office of Civil supplies CID, Madurai on November 2 as part of the drive against officials who collected Deepavali mamool, inspector John Britto was not there. They made SSI Natchitram call Britto’s driver, requesting him to come to the office. Soon, he reached the office in a private car. The DVAC team immediately started their search, and the inspector, who joined police department as direct SI in 1999, was forced to pull out two envelopes each from his pant pockets. “His left pant pocket had two envelopes containing Rs 25,000 and Rs 8,500, while the right side pocket had two other envelopes with Rs 50,000 and Rs 40.000 each,” said the DVAC FIR.

The team also recovered Rs 3,000 in the bureau at the office, and in total, Rs 1.26 lakh in unaccounted money was seized from the Civil supply CID office. The agency has registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against John Britto and SSI Natchitram.