According to DVAC, the office of Pollution Control Board for Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur has been functioning in the Nagapattinam Collectorate premises and Dhanaraj (56) has been working as the environmental engineer, who controls both Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts. It is said that more than 50 modern rice mills are functioning under his jurisdiction.

In such a backdrop, one Duraisamy who has been running a rice mill at Vilamalai in Tiruvarur district applied for renewal of air and water license, but the engineer Dhanaraj demanded a bribe of Rs 40,000. Unwilling to give bribe, the mill owner Duraisamy approached the Tiruavur DVAC sleuths and the DVAC registered a case and organised a trap.

On Thursday evening, as per the instruction of the DVAC, the mill owner Duraisamy called on Dhanaraj for paying the money and he was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 from Duraisamy.

Subsequently, the DVAC sleuths conducted a simultaneous search operation at his house in Urappakkam in Chengalpattu district and rental house at Nagore in Nagapattinam district on Friday. In continuation of the interrogations at the residence of Dhanaraj in Urappakkam in Chengalpattu near Chennai unaccounted money of Rs 57,02,000, along with demonetised currency of Rs. 2,66,500 and documents were seized.

In a search at the rental room of Dhanaraj at Nagore unaccounted money of Rs 3,14,000 was seized. Totally unaccounted money of Rs 62.82 lakh was unearthed. The police also seized several documents from his houses.

Following the seizure of incriminating documents DVAC sleuths arrested Dhanaraj and produced him before the Tiruvarur court. He was remanded and lodged in the sub-jail in Tiruthuraipoondi in Tiruvarur district.

Meanwhile, the DVAC sleuths also seized Rs 79,000 unaccounted cash from Thanjavur Sub-Registrar office in a surprise raid. It registered a case against five officials namely, Joint Sub Registrar Ilayaraja, document writers Rajarajan, Prabakaran and their assistants Ravikumar and Devendran.