TIRUCHY: A Village Administrative Officer (VAO) was suspended on Friday after a video of him collecting bribes from a sand mafia went viral in Tiruchy.
Nagaraj, a DMK functionary from Puthanatham and his sons Dharmaraj and Dhakshinamurthy, were involved in dredging gravel sand with the government's approval. It is said that their permit expired a few days ago, but they continued to dredge sand.
Recently, the Puthanatham VAO Saravanan learned about the illegal sand mining. He went to the spot and stopped Nagaraj and his sons from dredging sand. Nagaraj had made negotiations with the VAO, who demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 to permit dredging. But Nagaraj bargained and promised to give the VAO Saravanan Rs 20,000. Nagaraj also promised him a monthly bribe from June, and this entire conversation was video recorded, which went viral on social media.
The information was brought to the knowledge of the district collector, V Saravanan, who instructed the Srirangam RDO Salai Thavalavan to suspend the VAO Saravanan. Based on the instruction, Sarvanan was suspended on Friday.