Vigilance shock raids unearth entrenched corruption in Keralas Motor Vehicle division

On Saturday, VACB officers, performing on intelligence collected covertly over a number of weeks, swooped down on 81 MVD workplaces throughout the State, as a part of a centrally coordinated simultaneous operation code-named “Clean Wheels”.

The shock inspections focused 17 RTOs and 64 Sub-Regional Transport Offices (SRTOs). Investigators mentioned clerical and enforcement officers at RTOs benefited from the racket. 

‘Perfunctory’ examinations

Top officers advised The Hindu {that a} community of “dishonest” MVD officers connected to the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) had devised quite a lot of unlawful strategies to permit automobiles looking for health certificates and driving license aspirants to cross inspections by conducting “perfunctory examinations”, doubtlessly jeopardising the protection of lakhs of street customers, together with motorists and pedestrians.

 Officials mentioned that re-registration of ageing automobiles, issuance of health certificates, permits for lorries and buses, and conducting driving assessments for everlasting driving licenses have been among the many central avenues of corruption within the MVD.

Official-agent nexus

They said that the shock raids had revealed that officers labored in live performance with brokers who collected the bribe cash from service seekers, which they then clandestinely handed on to the car inspectors at weekends after taking a considerable lower. 

The company said that a good portion of the bribes collected from the general public was handed on to the officers by brokers as UPI transactions. VACB investigators mentioned a preliminary verification of the UPI transactions of a number of MVD officers revealed that they’d illicitly acquired a complete quantity of ₹7,84,598. “The quantity is merely the iceberg’s tip,” a senior official mentioned.

“A standard follow at RTOs is to reject on-line purposes for registering new automobiles, transferring possession of current ones and issuing permits for industrial automobiles, citing minor errors, forcing the candidates to strategy brokers for the general public service,” he added.  

The VACB discovered that purposes “attested” by brokers have been cleared shortly, with out following any order of priority. “Scores of unbiased purposes, together with for license renewal, learner’s license, worldwide license and no objection certificates for inter-State car transfers, gathered mud in RTO workplaces pending clearance as a result of no intermediary sponsored them,” an investigator mentioned. 

RTOs caught off guard

The VACB had timed the RTO raid for the weekend closing time on Saturday afternoon. The shock inspections appeared to have caught RTO officers and their brokers off guard. In Nilambur SRTO, brokers discovered ₹49,300 “rapidly thrown outdoors the window” by officers. 

The VACB confiscated ₹1,40,760 from brokers throughout the State. Many have been caught with large sums of unaccounted cash in RTO workplaces”, an official mentioned. The company has detained at the least 11 suspected intermediaries for questioning. Director General of Police, VACB, Manoj Abraham, supervised the anti-corruption drive.