Government officer running illegal office busted, Rs 3 lakh seized

VELLORE: A team of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption officials (DVAC) headed by DSP Saravana Kumar after receiving a tip raided the Directorate of Town and Country Planning office in Vellore on Friday night and seized Rs 3.28 lakh in unaccounted money from the cabin of C Subramaniyam, deputy director of integrated Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts.

The sleuths picked up Subramaniyam from his office at Sathuvacheri and also raided a private building where he had hired more than 37 employees and resorted to illegal activities.

While inspecting the documents at his illegal office site, the sleuths found that Subramaniyam had been 'running' it for the past one year in the same Sathuvacheri area and was paying a monthly salary of Rs 9,000 to each of his employees.

"Most of the workers at his private office were found to be civil engineers who had been engaged to do documentation work pertaining to files submitted by members of the public for approval of layouts and plots at a rented building a few hundred metres from the Town and Country Planning office." said Vellore DVAC inspector Vijay.

Subramaniyam had forced and compelled several members of the public to pay bribe to issue approval orders, Vijay told TOI.