CHENNAI: A government workshop assistant engineer and a chargeman were arrested for allegedly collecting Rs 30,000 as bribe for renewal of a contract, near Chennai on Monday. They were identified as Mohan, assistant engineer, and Murali, chargeman, of government workshop, Kancheepuram.

One Venkatesan of Avadi, who runs a workshop and has a contract with the government workshop for repairing vehicles, lodged a complaint. Two months ago, the complainant’s contract had expired. When he applied the renewal of the contract at the government workshop, assistant engineer Mohan demanded Rs 50,000 as bribe for processing his application. Later, after Venkatesan requested, the bribe amount was reduced to Rs 30,000.