TIRUCHY: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), Tiruchy, on Friday arrested the secretary of the Agriculture Regulated Market Committee (ARMC) after seizing Rs 9.70 lakh in cash from his office.

Based on the information that Suresh Babu (56), Secretary of the regulated market committee of Agriculture department functioning at Palakkarai, was collecting bribe in view of Deepavali from the salespersons of the regulated market committee functioning in the district, a team of DVAC officials, led by the DSP G Manikandan, rushed to the office and conducted a search operation on Friday morning.

Initially the team found an unaccounted sum of Rs 90,000 with the secretary Suresh Babu and the further interrogation found that he had stocked the collected bribe at his room at Crawford, where he was staying. Subsequently, the team went to the room and conducted an elaborate search in which they seized Rs 8.80 lakh.

The officials said that Suresh Babu controls as many as 14 agriculture regulated markets in Tiruchy and the secretary incharge of as many as 15 such markets in Tirupur district and was collecting bribes for the past few days ahead of Deepavali. Further investigations are on.