Tirunelveli: A state PWD junior engineer was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs50,000 from a local industrialist at his office in Tenkasi, Tirunelveli district, on Monday night. Amalraj Pandian of Surandai, near Tenkasi, is setting up a cashewnut processing unit at Sernthamaram village. As it is located beyond a stream, Amalraj Pandian approached the local panchayat administration, seeking to build a small culvert over the stream to create an approach way for his cashew processing unit.

The panchayat administration sanctioned the project. However, the junior engineer of the Tenkasi public works department, Porchezhiyan, demanded a bribe of Rs 1.40 lakh from Amalraj Pandian to give approval for the construction of the culvert. Amalraj Pandian agreed to give the bribe, but lodged a complaint against the PWD engineer with the vigilance and anti-corruption wing police. They advised him to give the first instalment of Rs 50,000 to the PWD engineer at his office. The vigilance police gave Amalraj Pandian chemical-coated currency notes for Rs 50,000.

On Monday night, after all the staff of the office had left, Amalraj Pandian handed over the first instalment of the bribe to Porchezhiyan. He was caught red-handed by the vigilance personnel who were lying in wait to trap him. According to the vigilance wing police, complaints against the junior engineer are pouring in and, hence, they had intensified their investigation to find whether he has amassed properties disproportionate to his known sources of income.