KOCHI: Officers of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) were in for a surprise when they raided a flat of an official of Kerala Pollution Control Board (KPCB) at Aluva in Ernakulam -- they found currency notes worth Rs 20 lakh stashed in different places including a pressure cooker.
VACB decided to raid the flat of Environmental Engineer Harees A M of Kottayam KPCB unit after he was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe amount of Rs 25,000 from an owner of a rubber retreading firm at Kottayam. "We raided the flat and seized unaccounted money to the tune of Rs 20 lakh. The money was kept hidden in different spots in the flat," said Vigilance DySP Vidhyadharan K A.
It was only six months ago that Harees got transferred to the Kottayam KPCB office after being promoted to the post of environmental engineer. Harees has earlier worked in Ernakulam and other northern districts.
Vigilance officials said they have also seized many documents including bank deposit details revealing that the accused had made a lot of investments. "We are verifying the documents as we suspect many real estate transactions also," an officer said adding that they have to bring in currency counting machines to quantify the amount recovered.
Officials said the corrupt practices of the engineer came up before the vigilance officials after an owner of a rubber retreading firm approached the VACB with a complaint submitting that the PCB engineer was demanding a bribe for renewing the license of the firm. Based on the inputs given by the complainant, Vigilance laid a trap and caught him red-handed.