T'puram: Two officers from the railway protection force, Thiruvananthapuram, were arrested by vigilance and anti-corruption bureau (VACB) sleuths for accepting a bribe of Rs 4,000 from a native of West Bengal.
RPF, Thiruvananthapuram, had arrested Juel Das on Nov 21 for illegally possessing railway tickets. He was presented before the chief judicial magistrate court that remanded him in custody. During the arrest, the officers seized a mobile phone, ATM card, Rs 1,280 and other items from him. Assistant sub-inspector Vipin and constable Praveen Raj of the RPF then demanded a bribe of Rs 4,000 from him for facilitating his conveyance to the jail. They threatened the passenger, used his ATM card and withdrew Rs 4,000 from his account at an HDFC ATM counter in Thycaud.
The vigilance unit in the Thiruvananthapuram region conducted a preliminary investigation and registered a case.
Vigilance director Yogesh Gupta urged the public to report any information regarding corruption to the toll-free number 1064, phone number 8592900900, or WhatsApp number 9447789100.
As per govt figures, over 1,000 govt employees ended up in vigilance cases in the five years from Feb 2019 to Feb 2024. Out of this, approximately 50 were central govt employees. TNN