Village assistant, field assistant caught by vigilance while accepting bribe

AMBALAPUZHA: A village assistant and a field assistant were caught by vigilance while accepting a bribe of Rs 5000 from an applicant for land-type conversion. A team led by Alappuzha Vigilance DySP Girish P Sarathy arrested Vinod, Village Assistant at Punnapra South Village Office, and Ashok Kumar, Field Assistant at Punnapra South Panchayat. They will be produced in the Kottayam Vigilance Court today.

Hashim, a resident of Punnapra, had applied to the village office last August for land type conversion. Vinod demanded Rs 5000 to proceed the application. Following this, Hashim approached Vigilance. Hashim came to the village office at around 3.30 pm yesterday with ten notes of Rs 500 smeared with phenolphthalein and as per the instructions of Vinod handed over the notes to Ashok Kumar. The vigilance caught them in the act.

Inspectors Prashant Kumar, MK Rajesh Kumar, R Jimstal, officers Basanth, Jayalal, Shyam, Sanal, Ranjith, Sameesh, Sudeep, Liju and Suresh Babu were in the vigilance team.