Unaccounted cash worth ₹1.31 lakh seized from two sub-registrar offices

The sub-registrar office (SRO) in Tirupattur’s Ambur town was raided on Tuesday.

Officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) have seized unregistered cash worth ₹1.31 lakh from two sub-registrar offices (SROs) in Vandavasi and Ambur towns in Tiruvannamalai and Tirupattur districts.

A team of officials led by S. Velmurugan, DSP, DVAC (Tiruvannamalai), raided an SRO in Vandavasi, following a tip-off that the employees were taking bribes for registration through brokers and document writers. In Tirupattur, a team led by DSP C. Raju, acting on a similar tip-off, raided an SRO.

DVAC sources said many applications for property registration were expected from the SROs in view of the upcoming Deepavali festival. On average, each office registered at least 60 to 70 residential and commercial plots every day. Most payments and commissions were made via mobile phones. As most of the complaints received by the DVAC were related to online transactions, the officials seized the mobile phones of the sub-registrars and others in the offices to verify cash transactions.

The teams found online transactions, mainly through mobile phones, amounting to ₹20 lakh. A detailed investigation is being conducted.

The DVAC officials seized ₹79,100 and ₹52,000 worth of unaccounted cash from the Vandavasi and Ambur offices respectively. In August this year, DVAC officials seized ₹76,900 worth of unaccounted cash from a sub-registrar office in Chengam town of Tiruvannamalai.