DVAC traps PWD staffer for seeking bribe from builder

According to V Sundar, a builder residing in Mylapore, he had entered into a joint development agreement with six persons to rebuild an apartment structure. He had availed the permission from Chennai Corporation to demolish the existing structure.

As the application was referred to the Water Resources Organistion (WRO) for getting remarks from the point of view of inundation, Sundar started following the application at that WRO, Chepauk. “For the last one year, I have been trying to get the remarks from the WRO. I met several officers, and one executive engineer had asked me to meet head draughtsman Ashok Chakravarthy. When I met him and asked about the inundation certificate, he said that I will have to give Rs 45,000 as bribe to obtain it,” Sundar alleged in his complaint given to the DVAC.

When he told Chakravarthy on August 30 that he did not have the money, Sundar was asked to pay at least Rs 15,000 as bribe to get the required document. He said no to the demand once again. On Tuesday, he received a call from the official, who reiterated that the certificate would be issued only after getting a bribe of Rs 15,000.

“I did not want to pay bribe and get the document from them so I am lodging a complaint with the DVAC,” Sundar noted in the complaint, based on which the sleuths had a registered a FIR against the head draughtsman. Ashok Chakravarthy was trapped by a DVAC team on Wednesday while he was accepting the bribe. “He has been arrested under Prevention of Corruption Act and remanded in judicial custody,” a DVAC official said.