Joint RTO, two others booked for accepting bribe to approve vehicle modification

Thrissur: A vigilance case has been registered on Sunday against a joint RTO and two intermediaries for accepting lakhs of rupees as bribe to approve illegal vehicle modification. The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau have registered two cases against former Thrissur Joint RTO B Sreeprakash and intermediaries CM Sudin and CL Tenny. 

Tenny is the Chairman of the Board of Central Trustees of the Chaldean Syrian Church. An investigation from the vigilance unit found that the joint RTO received bribe and approved the modification of 57 vehicles including those used to transfer cash to ATMs. As a result, the government has lost lakhs of rupees in taxes.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the Joint RTO received a bribe of about Rs 25,000 per vehicle and earned around Rs 15 lakh. The vigilance has been probing the matter for almost three years. It was ascertained that many companies used illegally modified vehicles for cash transfer by discarding the directives issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the matter. 

Meantime, Vigilance has also received information that there are other groups operating in the state which are smuggling lakhs of rupees by modifying vehicles violating the norms set by the Central Government and the Supreme Court.