Palakkad (Kerala), March 12 A village panchayat clerk was caught red-handed by the VACB in this district on Thursday while allegedly accepting Rs 2,500 as a bribe for issuing a residence certificate, officials said.
The accused, Sreejith Gopinath (39), a clerk of Puthussery grama panchayat and a native of Akathethara in Palakkad, was arrested near Chullimada, close to the panchayat office, while accepting a bribe from the complainant, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) officials said.
According to officials, the complainant’s friend, a native of Thiruvananthapuram who was staying as a tenant in the complainant’s house at Kanjirakkode in Polakkode, required a residence certificate to avail a bank loan to purchase a tipper lorry.
An application for the certificate had been submitted through an Akshaya centre at the panchayat office.
When the complainant later approached the office to inquire about the application, the clerk allegedly visited the house for verification and informed that there were some complications as the house was in the name of the complainant’s father.
He also asked the complainant to bring the father’s death certificate to the office, officials said.
When the complainant later met the clerk with the document, Sreejith allegedly demanded Rs 2,500 as a bribe for issuing the residence certificate and asked him to pay the amount either through bank transfer or in cash, VACB said.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the VACB unit in Palakkad, following which officials laid a trap. The accused was caught while accepting the bribe at around 1.10 pm near the panchayat office, officials said. He will be produced before the Vigilance Court in Thrissur soon, officials added.
