Three motor vehicle inspectors in Kottayam have been suspended for taking lakhs of rupees monthly as bribes from lorry owners for illegally transporting soil and sand from quarries. Kottayam Thellakam Enforcement Rt. MVIs in the office V. Shajan, Ajith Sivan, MR. Anil and Transport Commissioner S. Sreejith suspended.
Eastern Region Vigilance Superintendent V.G. The action is based on Vinod Kumar’s report. The vigilance had received documents of suspended officials receiving Rs 7,500 per lorry and Rs 6 lakh per month for going without a pass and overloading.
According to the suspension order, based on the vigilance report, it has been found that the officials have caused a huge loss in GST and royalty due to the government through illegal activities. Kottayam vigilance registered a case against the lorry owner Rajeev, a native of Kadapur Vattulam, who acted as an intermediary to pay bribes to officials.
On the complaint of transporting soil and sand in torus lorries without a pass, MC called Operation Overload. During the vigilance inspection at Etumanur on the road, evidence was found regarding officials taking bribes. The trio used to buy bribes through Google Pay.
During the vigilance inspection, evidence was found that Shajan received Rs 3 lakh through his father’s bank account in Thiruvananthapuram, Ajith Sivan received Rs 2.5 lakh through his own account and Anil received Rs 53,000 through his benami account.
The house rent of the officers was also paid by the intermediary Rajeev. MC The transactions with the lorry owners and officials were done through a WhatsApp group called ROAD. The lorry numbers will be given to the officials through this WhatsApp group to avoid getting caught in the inspection. Officials do not catch the lorries on the list, or after catching them, they let them go without taking any action.
During the vigilance inspection, it was found that there are owners who pay bribes up to half a lakh rupees per month. The vigilance report also said that there are officials who take more than three lakh rupees a month as bribe only from lorry owners.