Sub-registrar booked for graft 5 months after raid

DVAC has registered a FIR against K Gopalakrishnan, the sub-registrar of Villivakkam, in the first week of this month, sources said. The case was registered nearly after five months after the DVAC raid which was conducted after getting the permission from Principal Secretary of commercial taxes and registration department.

The raid was carried out based on credible information that corruption was rampant at the sub-registrar’s office. Bribe was being collected from the public who came to register their documents, encumbrance certificate and other related works, the agency said.

During the raids carried out from 5.30 pm to 10.45 pm on December 13, the DVAC team had found that officially collected revenue was Rs 31,495 but there was Rs 2,200 excess in the revenue cash box. During the search, Rs 29,890 was found inside the purse that belonged to S Nagarajan, a data entry operator, while Rs 17,500 was found on the floor of the computer room and a similar amount was found hidden between the sheets of documents in the record room.

The DVAC sleuths had also found Rs 10,400 in possession of K Shankar, a document writer who was present in the office premise. Another Rs 4,100 was found inside the generator sound encloser box in the ground floor. Besides these, Rs 4,000 was found with Surya who was unofficially engaged by the sub registrar for his assistance in the SRO office. During the search the officials also fished out Rs 1,970 from the computer table drawer, the FIR noted.

In the FIR, the DVAC has cited only Gopalakrishnan as the accused under the Sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.