RTO, accountant under DVAC probe for swindling Rs 8.8 lakh tax amount

The accused officers allegedly collected Rs 11.94 lakh as life tax from 11 vehicle owners but on record, the collected amount was shown as Rs 3.05 lakh and the rest of the amount was allegedly swindled by them.

The accused were identified as G Selvi, who worked as an accountant at the Marthandam RTO office when the offence was committed and K Palaniswamy, then Regional Transport Officer. Selvi is currently posted in Tiruchendur RTO in Thoothukudi. Palaniswamy is working as RTO in Perambalur.

All financial transaction in RTO is taken care of by the accountant while RTO functions as the supervising official.

The two officials allegedly conspired together and collected life tax from 11 vehicle owners, who had their vehicles temporarily registered in other districts and later registered in Marthandam RTO. The two had collected life tax as per actual invoice from vehicle owners and later created false documents to show less price for vehicles and such price is entered into the computer to generate records of less amount of life tax. By doing this, the two had swindled Rs.8.8 lakh cash which was meant for the government exchequer, DVAC said in its FIR.

The vehicle owners had also corroborated the incidents and as per their information, they had paid full life tax while registering the vehicles.  The DVAC had registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act along with IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document),  466 (forging document), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) etc.