Coimbatore: Ex-Valparai municipality chief booked for siphoning off Rs 36lakh

COIMBATORE: The district crime branch police have booked former Valparai municipality commissioner K Paunraj and three others for misappropriating Rs 35.78 from the fund for development projects. This is the second case to be booked against him in as many months.
As per the official documents, a police source said, the municipality had issued work orders for 31 developmental projects to MIY Constructions between August 2020 and January 2021 and paid the firm Rs 35.78 lakh upon completion of the projects.
When the officials checked the ban account, the source said, they found Paunraj had transferred the amount to three bank accounts owned by Green Park and contractor Manikumar on December 13, 2020.
Subsequently, the incumbent municipality commissioner, S Sureshkumar, sent a report to the regional director of municipal administration (Tirupur) who in turn directed him to lodge a police complaint.
Based on his complaint, the district crime branch police booked Paunraj, Manikumar, Nanjundan, a manager of the municipality, and proprietor of Green Park that supplied sanitation materials to the municipality under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.
In April, the district crime branch police had registered a case against Paunraj for misappropriating public funds to the tune of Rs 15.62 crore and he was booked under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.