VAO jumps into pond with bribe amount while being chased by police, arrested

COIMBATORE: A village administrative officer (VAO) at Mathvarayapuram in Coimbatore district jumped into a pond with Rs 3,500 bribe money when sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) chased him on Friday night. The DVAC sleuths also jumped into the pond and arrested the VAO.
The arrested VAO has been identified as M Vetrivel, 32, from Theni district. He is working as the VAO of Mathvarayapuram village in Coimbatore district.
Sources said an elderly woman named Marathal, a cancer patient, had applied for a legal heir certificate after the demise of her husband. The VAO demanded Rs 5,000 from her for arranging the certificate. The woman paid Rs 1,000 to the VAO last month.
When the VAO demanded that the woman pay the remaining Rs 4,000, she approached her son-in-law Krishnasamy, 62, who is a farmer in Mathvarayapuram. Krishnasamy alerted the DVAC sleuths who laid a trap.
As instructed by the DVAC sleuths, the farmer contacted the VAO and asked him to be in front of a City Union Bank branch near Perur tahsildar office around 8pm on Friday.
Vetrivel reached the spot around 8pm and was sitting on his motorcycle. The farmer met him and gave him chemical-laced currency notes to the tune of Rs 3,500.
DVAC officials, who were hiding nearby, caught the VAO red-handed. However, Vetrivel managed to escape from the place on his motorcycle. The DVAC sleuths chased him in a car.
Vetrivel fell on the road from his motorcycle. Before the sleuths caught him, he jumped into the pond called Perur Periyakulam. Once in the pond, he threw the notes into the water.
The sleuths also jumped into the pond and caught him. But they could not trace the currency notes.