Kochi, Aug 30 A court in Muvattupuzha near here sentenced a former office assistant at the Idukki District Scheduled Castes Office to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh in a bribery case.
The Muvattupuzha Vigilance Court Judge Rajesh G, on Saturday, found Rasheed K Panakkal (50), a native of Edavetty in Idukki, guilty of accepting a Rs 25,000 bribe from a man after promising to expedite procedures for sanctioning a post-matric scholarship for his daughter’s higher education.
Panakkal, a senior clerk at the Thiruvananthapuram District Scheduled Castes Office, allegedly told the complainant that the scholarship amount sanctioned through the Idukki District Scheduled Castes Development Office since 2019 was being released quickly due to his intervention.
He had accepted bribes from the complainant in 2019 and 2020 and later demanded Rs 40,000 from the scholarship instalment sanctioned in 2021.
When the complainant paid Rs 25,000 as the first instalment of the bribe, the Idukki Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) Unit caught Panakkal red-handed in 2021.
The investigation was conducted by former DySPs of the Idukki VACB Unit, VR Ravikumar, Shaju Jose, and Vinod C, as well as Inspectors Tipson Thomas and Shinto P Kurian.
Public Prosecutors Saritha V A and Divya P S appeared for VACB.
