CHENNAI: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on August 12 filed a corruption case in Dharmapuri district 10 years after the commission of the crime. It followed 18 months after a government official allegedly involved in the offence died.
In the FIR, the agency’s Dharmapuri unit claimed that revenue officials disbursed old age pensions to 296 ineligible beneficiaries without verifying the authenticity of the submitted documents and caused a financial loss of Rs 1.33 crore to the government.
Eight former revenue officials who served in the district during 2014-2018 are being accused of projecting rich people as destitute for availing them the benefits of the government pension scheme.
However, the FIR also mentioned the role of three officers in the corruption scam who had passed away.
S Athiyaman, the special tahsildar handling the social security schemes in Dharmapuri’s Pennagaram Taluk, allegedly sanctioned old age pensions to ineligible beneficiaries without verifying their documents, DVAC said in the FIR. The agency did not arraign him as an accused as he had passed away in February 2023.
Similarly, revenue inspector G Sadasivam and VAO B Manivannan were also not mentioned as the accused as they had passed away in April 2023 and August 2020.