A firka surveyor of the Chetpet taluk near Tiruvannamalai town was arrested by sleuths of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Thursday, for demanding and taking a bribe of ₹5,000 from a man who had approached him seeking name change of his patta land.
A team led by S. Velmurugan, Deputy SP, DVAC (Tiruvannamalai), caught surveyor K. Dheenadayalan, 29, red-handed while receiving the bribe from the complainant, V. Sagadevan, 31, of Cheyyanandal village of Chetpet taluk.
DVAC sources said the complainant Sagadevan was a professional photographer for marriages and temple festivals in the village. Sagadevan had bought a land along with his brother from a neighbour, C. Soubhagyam, in 2023. Since the name in the patta was not changed for his portion of land, he had applied for the sub-division of it at the survey section in the Chetpet taluk office on February 16.
Since there was no response from the surveyor office on his application, he met the firka surveyor, Dheenadayalan, at the taluk office. Initially, Dheenadayalan demanded ₹12,000 for processing his application. Later, on request from the complainant, Sagadevan, Dheenadayalan reduced the amount to ₹10,000. He demanded an advance of ₹5,000 to process the name change application.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, Sagadevan lodged a complaint with the DVAC. The DVAC laid a trap and caught Dheenadayalan red-handed, DVAC sources said.
