Villa worth Rs 1.5 crore in Kochi, house in Bengaluru; minimum bribe taken by Deepesh a shocking five lakhs

KOCHI/PUTHENKURISH: 'Honest' in front of colleagues, but Shylock when it comes to bribes from the public. The minimum bribe is five lakhs. Will not accept bribes in the office or its surroundings. The operation used to be carried out at night. The vigilance was also shocked by the activities of T Deepesh Kumar (40), the building department overseer of Puthenkurish panchayat in Vadavucode, who was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 15 lakhs from a godown owner the other day.

The overseer takes bribes of lakhs by intervening in big cases. He will not budge if the bribe is less than five lakhs. Deepesh Kumar took a bribe of 15 lakhs to issue a completion certificate for a godown built at a cost of 15 crores on 55,000 square feet in Chalikkara, Karimugal. He asked for 20 lakhs but it was reduced to 15 lakhs in a bargain.

The godown owner informed the Vigilance. On Tuesday night at 8.30 pm, the Vigilance caught him while receiving Rs. 5 lakh in cash and Rs. 10 lakh in cheques in his car near the Kakkanad Collectorate. Deepesh was under the observation of the Vigilance when he was working in the Kadamakudy Panchayat itself. Many of the Vigilance operations failed due to lack of complaints.

Deepesh came to Puthen Kurish only a short time back. Here, he behaved as an honest officer among his colleagues. Vigilance will examine the files Deepesh handled in the offices where he worked earlier. The files were seized from the office in Puthen Kurish. Deepesh is a native of Kanhangad, Kasaragod.

Villa worth Rs 1.5 crore, house in Bengaluru

Deepesh lives in a villa worth Rs 1.5 crore in Kakkanad. Vigilance is investigating whether it was bought with bribe money. Unaccounted Rs 5.5 lakh was seized during the search conducted here. He has another house in Bengaluru. Search was conducted there too. Some documents were also recovered from his house in Kasaragod and his wife's house.