Coimbatore cop booked on charges of taking Rs 4.40 lakh bribe

COIMBATORE: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), Coimbatore, has registered a case against an additional superintendent of police on charges of demanding and receiving a bribe. According to DVAC officials, M Gunasekaran, 57, currently working at the city armed reserve, allegedly demanded and received Rs 4.40 lakh as a bribe for settling a cheating case when he served as an assistant commissioner of police in the city crime branch in 2023. On June 28, 2023, A Nagaraj and K S Noorullah lodged a complaint with the city crime branch regarding a cheating incident. Nagaraj and Noorullah were doing a real estate business and planned to purchase a parcel of land near Vellalore to develop a housing layout. They saw 2.08 acres of land owned by Marudhachalam and his son, Karthikeyan. They paid an advance of Rs 2.42 crore and started the layout process. Later, they found that there was a court case over the parcel of land. The duo asked Marudhachalam to return the advance they had paid. Meanwhile, Marudhachalam and his son registered the same land in another person’s name. Following this, Nagaraj and Noorullah lodged a complaint with the city crime branch police. Gunasekaran, who was assistant commissioner of police of the city crime branch, conducted an inquiry. During the inquiry, Marudhachalam stated that he and his son would repay the advance amount in four instalments. However, Gunasekaran demanded Rs 5 lakh as a bribe for settling the case. He introduced D Praveen, 38, of Sriram Nagar near Podanur who would collect the money. On Aug 31, 2023, he received Rs 4.40 lakh as a bribe from Marudhachalam through Praveen. DVAC police registered a case against Gunasekaran under Section 7(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and began an investigation.