Assistant Director of Mines held for accepting Rs 3L bribe

TIRUCHY: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) sleuths on Friday arrested an Assistant Director of Mines for accepting a bribe of Rs 3 lakh for granting permission to resume functioning of a blue metal quarry in the outskirts of Tiruchy.

According to the DVAC, P Albert (56), a realtor, residing at KK Nagar, Tiruchy, who has a piece of a family property of 2.93 ha land at Poolancheri Village in Musiri was running a blue metal quarry in the land since 2007. However, owing to some personal reasons, the quarry had stopped functioning from 2011.

Meanwhile, Albert, who wanted to resume functioning of the blue metal quarry, had applied for the same with Sridharan, Assistant Director (Geology and Mines) on June 2, 2022. He had also furnished the proper documents and the prescribed fee.

While the RDO and the Tahsildar had visited and inspected the land as per the procedure, the application was lying pending with the Assistant Director for a few months. Albert went to the office on February 7 and inquired about the status of the application and the AD Sridharan demanded Rs 5 lakh as bribe to sanction the order. After negotiation, Sridharan accepted to receive Rs 3 lakh as advance and the balance later.

Albert lodged a complaint with the DVAC and a team led by DSP Manikandan went to the office on Friday and caught Sridharan red-handed. Subsequently, the team arrested Sridharan.