Rs 1 cr cash seized from village office staff caught for bribery

Palakkad: A village field assistant, V Suresh Kumar, who was caught with Rs 1 crore in possession, was remanded to custody for 14 days on Wednesday. 

The case will be considered on June 7. Meanwhile, latest reports said the staffer in question has been suspended. 

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau stumbled upon the stashed money the other day soon after it caught red-handed the field assistant.

The seizure was from a property opposite the vegetable market at Mannarkkad in Palakkad district.

The personnel of the anti-graft agency found bundles of currency notes stacked in cardboard boxes and plastic covers in the one-room residence of Kumar soon after he was arrested while accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000.

Kumar had initially claimed he had Rs 6 lakh in his possession. But the investigation revealed he had much more.

A total of Rs 1.05 crore in cash, fixed deposits, and in passbooks were identified.

The cash was found hidden in various areas of the small room. The dust and dirt accumulated on the currency notes suggested the money was stashed away for a long time.

The inspection that started at 6:30 pm was completed by 8:30 pm. The Vigilance team said a detailed investigation will follow; the source of the money also needs to be investigated, they said. Only preliminary inspection has been completed under the leadership of the Deputy Superintendent of Police.

Police suspect the seized cash was bribes received by Kumar, but they don't rule out the possibility that he could be a benami.

Kumar, from Malayinkeezhu in Thiruvananthapuram, had been working in various village offices around Mannarkad for about 17 years.

The Vigilance claimed this is the largest sum recovered from a revenue officer in Kerala so far.