Kerala Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector caught while taking bribe from RTO agents

Kerala Motor Vehicle department has been in the news lately for their actions against illegal modifications. While most of the officers are doing their duty sincerely, corruption is their in this department too. Corrupted officers are not limited to just the MVD department. They can be found in almost every government department. In a recent incident, an Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector (AMVI) of Kerala MVD was recently caught by officers from Vigilance department. The incident happened in Kerala’s Kottayam district and the AMVI of Kanjirappally RTO Sreejith Sukumaran is the officer who got caught while taking bribe.

According to the report, Vigilance department had received information that officers in the Motor Vehicle Department are collecting bribes for issuing driving licence. They have been getting reports of corruption from this particular MVD but, they were unable to nab the culprits. This time around, vigilance came up with a proper plan and caught the officer red handed. Vigilance officers also raided the Motor Vehicle Department office as well.

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The amount varied depending upon the type of licence one wanted. For example, for a two wheeler licence they officer charged Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 for four wheeler and heavy vehicle licence respectively. Along with the AMVI, vigilance also caught Abdul Samad and Niyas who are agents. The vigilance actually caught the officer when the agents approached him to give the money. Vigilance department took the bribe amount as evidence and they also recorded the whole operation on video.

The vigilance officers also mentioned that they have recovered Rs 10,000 unaccounted from the agents as well. The main agent who is known by the name Victory Salim has gone underground and the Vigilance mentioned that in coming days they’ll be making more arrests related to this incident. Other than Sreejith Sukumaran, couple of other Motor Vehicle Inspectors are also likely to be involved in this corruption case.

The group used to follow a method where the officers did not collect the bribe from the applicant directly. They used to collect the amount via driving schools or agents. The agents would then handover the amount to the officer. According to the report, the officers used to get approximately Rs 20,000- Rs 30,000 as bribe daily from these agents. Vigilance has mentioned that they will be taking strict actions against the corrupted officers. The report does not specify what all actions would be taken against the officers and the agents involved in this offence. The officer involved in this are likely to be suspended until the investigation is finished.

In other incident, Vigilance had also caught couple of police officers for collecting bribe. Kerala MVD has been in the news lately for several reasons. They had recently fined a YouTuber Rs 10,500 for flipping a brand new Mahindra Thar intentionally. According to the reports, the fine was was dangerous driving and modifying the vehicle. Kerala MVD has been taking strict actions against modified vehicles and they are being criticised a lot by public for their actions on social media.

Via: Asianet News & News18

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