COIMBATORE: Three staff of Salem Corporation were suspended for swindling Rs 80 lakh by submitting fake bills to get building plan approvals.

The fraud came to light during an audit as Vijayasankar and Dhanabal, both working as assistant and junior assistant in two planning wings of the corporation and Suresh Kumar, a sanitary worker were hand in glove with a licensed building plan engineer in committing the scam.

The building plan engineer had applied for approval with a fake bill, which was found by officials. A clarification was sought from three corporation staff and the swindled amount of Rs 80 lakh was also collected from them.

In a further development, the corporation authorities placed them under suspension and a police complaint is likely to be given against the engineer.