Unaccounted Money worth Rs. 11.50 lakh seized from residence of Joint Registrar

Vigilance and Anti-Corruption sleuths discovered Rs.11.50 lakh unaccounted money from the apartment of Joint Registrar (in-charge), K. Sundareswaran (58), in Madurai on October 28, 2023, a day after the Virudhunagar unit of DVAC confiscated Rs.1.25 lakh from his possession near Virudhunagar.

Along with Sundareswaran, another employee, N. Muthukasi (52), who works as an IT camera operator in the office, has been charged by the DVAC under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The sleuths of Virudhunagar DVAC, led by its Additional Superintendent of Police, K. Ramachandran, kept an eye on Sundareswaran after receiving a tip concerning the collecting of bribe money from individuals registering their documents through the document writers.

Sundareswaran, a resident of Sellur near Madurai, was discovered to use leased cars to drive to his office in Virudhunagar. After being dropped off at his office, the call-taxi he had booked was waiting nearby for him to board.

Sundareswaran and Muthukasi had gone a short distance after leaving their office to catch the automobile. On Friday late evening, the sleuths who were following him intercepted the automobile at the Chatrareddiyapatti police checkpoint on the Virudhunagar-Madurai route.

During the search, the police discovered that Sundareswaran had Rs.1.25 lakh in undeclared money. The cops did a check and quizzed him after returning him to his office. The sleuths discovered that Sundareswaran and Muthukasi had stated in their workplace register that they were carrying only Rs.500 and Rs.540 in personal cash on Friday.

Sundareswaran also kept a list of bribe amounts to be collected from each document writer on his computer, using secret codes. The hard copy of the list is sent to the camera operator, who is also from Madurai, who collects money from each document writer based on the document’s value. He’d subsequently stroll to the automobile with the money and hand it over to Sundareswaran on his way home.

According to the investigators, he collected between Rs.2,000 and Rs.40,000 for each document registered on Friday.

He had been driving different cars to and from work each day in order to avoid being tracked by the vigilance sleuths.

According to DVAC sources, the sleuths later searched his Madurai home and seized Rs.11.50 lakh in cash that he could not account for. The investigators believe it is the collection made during the month of October.

People in the Virudhunagar district can call the DVAC ADSP, K. Ramachandran, at 94981-05882 to report corrupt practises in State Government offices in the district. The information and the caller’s identity would be kept private.