Chennai: Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) sleuths arrested an assistant attached to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (Tangedco) headquarters after he was caught accepting a bribe of ₹50,000 from a suspended employee for processing his reinstatement order.According to DVAC officials, Balasubramanian, an assistant engineer who worked in the Besant Nagar division of Tangedco, was arrested in Sept 2023 while accepting a bribe of ₹10,000 and was subsequently placed under suspension.Recently, the suspension order against Balasubramanian was revoked by the competent authority. However, a formal reinstatement order had to be issued by the chief engineer’s personnel division at the Tangedco headquarters on Anna Salai.During this process, Balaji, 45, an assistant attached to the administrative engineer’s office of the traffic division at the headquarters, demanded a bribe of ₹1.5 lakh from Balasubramanian to facilitate the issuance of the reinstatement order. After negotiations, the amount was reduced to ₹1.3 lakh.Unwilling to pay the bribe, Balasubramanian approached DVAC and lodged a complaint. Based on the complaint, DVAC officials organised a trap operation. Police caught Balaji red-handed when he accepted ₹50,000 as the first instalment of the demanded bribe from Balasubramanian.The accused was arrested and taken into custody for interrogation.
