Vigilance officials arrested the secretary of the Vellanad grama panchayat for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹10,000 on Tuesday.
The accused, Gopakumar, was purportedly caught red-handed shortly after he collected the sum from the complainant, who used to frequent the grama panchayat office. He had submitted an application a month ago seeking permission to remove soil from a land identified to construct a house for a cancer-striken relative under the LIFE Mission.
The applicant, who visited the office a day ago, was asked by the panchayat secretary to pay a sum of ₹20,000 to conduct a field visit. After conveying his willingness to pay the bribe, the complainant alerted the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB).
Acting on the basis of their instructions, the complainant paid ₹10,000 when the accused visited the proposed construction site for inspection on Tuesday evening. A team led by VACB Special Investigation Unit-2 DySP Anil Kumar intercepted Gopakumar’s vehicle as soon as he left the site and seized the bribe from his possession.
