GURUVAYUR: Thrissur Vigilance has arrested an Assistant Labour Officer for accepting a bribe from a hotel owner. The arrested person is K A Jayaprakash, the Assistant Labour Officer of Chavakkad. He had allegedly demanded money to avoid taking action against the hotel for employing too many temporary workers.

According to the complainant, Jayaprakash conducted an inspection at the hotel on August 30 and remarked that there were too many temporary staff and that he should be "treated appropriately" in order to avoid action. Later, he called the hotel manager, threatening to issue a notice if the money was not paid. On September 10, he officially sent a notice asking the manager to appear at the Labour Office.

Jayaprakash later called again and asked the manager to come on September 16 instead. When the manager met him at the office, Jayaprakash demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 to drop the proceedings. He forcibly collected Rs 5,000 as the first instalment.

Meanwhile, Jayaprakash was transferred from Chavakkad to Kakkanad Labour Office. However, he hid this from the manager and called again, asking for the remaining Rs 5,000 to be sent via Google Pay. When the manager said that it was not possible, Jayaprakash agreed to collect the money in person. The manager then informed Vigilance. On Tuesday afternoon, Jayaprakash came to the hotel to collect the bribe, where he was caught red-handed by the Vigilance team.