Malappuram: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau on Friday arrested an overseer and his driver for allegedly demanding a bribe from a man for allocating house number to his newly constructed house at Nannambra near Tirurangadi here. The accused are Nannambra panchayat overseer Kodinji Mangadakutti native Jafsal (34) and his driver Parappangadi native Dhijilesh (36). The vigilance team under DySP Firoz M Shafeeq arrested them with the bribe money.
The officials arrested the duo after receiving a complaint from Cherumukku native Shaheer Babu. He applied for numbering the house constructed on the land possessed by his mother. The overseer has denied the permit pointing out that a window has been constructed out of the permitted area and asked to destroy it for allocating the house number. Soon after the incident, the driver Dhijilesh contacted Shaheer over the phone and told him that the issue would be sorted out if he gave money to the official. Though Shaheer agreed to give them Rs 1,000, they demanded Rs 3,000.
Following this, the man approached the vigilance and the officials asked him to tell the driver that the money would be ready. Shaheer handed over the money to the driver in the panchayat office and the vigilance team nabbed him and the overseer from the office.
