Tiruchendur: Blind teacher puts HR&CE official in tight spot for demanding Rs 3L bribe to resolve salary issues
The Joint Commissioner C Kumaradurai who was in charge of the administration of the training school has been booked as the teacher later submitted the audio to DVAC with a complaint.
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CHENNAI: A blind headmaster of HR&CE's Priest Training School in Tiruchendur has rattled the corrupt government machinery by exposing an official getting a bribe for rectifying a genuine concern over salary issues.
The head of the training schools didn’t want to offer a Rs 3 lakh bribe to the Joint commissioner, HR&CE, as demanded by the official to rectify salary fixation. Instead, he recorded the audio conversation with the official when he went to give the first ‘instalment’ of Rs 50,000.
The Joint Commissioner C Kumaradurai who was in charge of the administration of the training school has been booked as the teacher later submitted the audio to DVAC with a complaint.
Kumaradurai is currently working in HR&CE, Kancheepuram. DVAC, nearly two and half years after the incident, has now registered an FIR against the officer under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
M Balamurugan, headmaster of Priests' training school in Tiruchendur is the one who raised the complaint. For the last four years, he was 100 per cent blind. Before that he was 75 per cent blind, making him a physically challenged person. As there were some defects in the fixation of pay under the 7th pay commission, Balamurugan had petitioned the HR&CE commissioner who had sought a report from joint commissioner Kumaradurai. The senior official apparently came to know that if the pay anomaly is fixed, Balamurgan was going to get Rs 10 lakh as genuine arrears. The official reportedly demanded Rs 3 lakh as a bribe to give a favourable report to the HR&CE commissioner.
Instead of feeding the corrupt system, Balamurugan caught him red-handed when paying the first instalment of Rs 50,000. He recorded his conversation with the JC using his mobile phone and submitted it to the DVAC. The anti-corruption agency now says that the act of the HR&CE officer receiving the bribe is an abuse of his position and slapped a graft case against him.
Cases were also booked for taking part in a crime to perform public duty dishonestly.