Coimbatore: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) sleuths on Thursday arrested a surveyor, who was attached with the city corporation, for accepting a bribe of Rs 6,000 from an elderly man for patta transfer. Two others have also been held for their involvement in the incident.
A DVAC official identified the accused trio as A Nirmal Kumar, 41, surveyor with the corporation east zone at Singanallur, A Natarajan, 67, a retired field assistant of the survey department, and N Pradeep Kumar, 38, a tout from Pollachi. All the three have been booked under Section 7(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The official said the three were held based on a complaint lodged by Nagarajan, 62, a native of Udhagamandalam in the Nilgiris district. “He had bought a tiled house at Ondipudur in Coimbatore a few months ago and registered it in his wife’s name. He wanted to demolish the house and construct a new one. When he approached a bank for loan, officials asked him to get the property’s patta transferred to his wife’s name from the previous owner.”
Nagarajan approached the surveyor a few days ago for patta transfer. However, Nirmal Kumar and Natarajan demanded Rs 6,000 for the same. Nagarajan then informed DVAC deputy superintendent of police T H Ganesh, who gave him chemical coated currency notes to trap the surveyor and aides.
“On Thursday, Nagarajan was asked to handover the amount to Pradeep at the surveyor’s room at the corporation east zone office. We nabbed the tout while taking the bribe and then arrested the remaining two,” the DVAC official added.