Gas agency bribe: Vigilance to investigate possible accomplices of Alex Mathew

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vigilance is probing into illegal activities done by top officials of Indian Oil Corporation to prevent customers from switching from gas agencies. DGM Alex Mathew was caught while accepting a bribe from a gas agency owner. A bribe of Rs 10 lakh was demanded by him to prevent customers from switching to other agencies. Vigilance is trying to find other officials who were Alex's accomplices in this transaction.

Vigilance assesses that such an irregularity cannot be committed by an official alone. Alex Mathew was arrested on a complaint by Manoj, the owner of a gas agency in Kadakkal, Kollam. He was arrested when he went to Manoj's house in Kowdiar to collect his share of the bribe money of Rs 2 lakh. However, many of Manoj's customers had already been switched to other newly established gas agencies. The demand was that about 20,000 more customers would be switched and that money should be paid to prevent that from happening.

Bribery in Idukki too: No complaint

Rs 1.07 lakh was found in Alex's vehicle. It was found that this was given by the owner of a gas agency in Idukki. However, the owner was not ready to file a complaint. Therefore, it was seized as undocumented money. Vigilance said that a separate case will be registered in this regard and the source of the money will be investigated. This amount will be considered a bribe. Vigilance also contacted some others who were found to have paid bribes, but many are not ready to file a complaint. The source of the deposit seized from Alex's house will be investigated.