Banned notes seized from Sholinganallur tahsildar

The suspects are identified as A Prabakaran, tahsildar, Sholinganallur, Priya, deputy inspector of survey, P Jaya, land record draftsman, Sivakumar, record clerk, N Kumar, office assistant besides brokers Pandian, Selvaraj and Venkatesan.

During the search operation, the DVAC seized Rs 24,000 from the chamber of a two-wheeler belonging to office assistant Kumar, who failed to give a satisfactory account for the money. Another Rs 1 lakh was seized from a private person who said that he was carrying the money as asked by record clerk Sivakumar to get patta for his land.

The DVAC team also seized Rs 1,04 lakh cash, including Rs. 94,500 worth demonetised notes of Rs 500, from the iron bureau in the tahsildar’s office. The officer however claimed that he was not responsible for it because as it was not officially handed over to him. The DVAC team later confirmed that the money could have come from the treasury in the year 2015 to the tahsildar’s office which was not used by the office. The seized Rs 1.04 lakh cash, including the banned notes of Rs 500, were handed over to the revenue divisional officer for further action.

In a surprise check linked to the seizure of cash at the tahsildar office, the DVAC registered another case of corruption against sub inspector of survey, M Arulmurugan, after inspecting his private office in Okkiyampettai, rented for Rs 9,000, from where the sleuths seized Rs 8,000 unaccounted cash. The officials also found that he had kept 49 patta transfer application in his private office.