Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board officer's premises raided, Rs. 3.58 crore cash, 450 sovereigns gold seized

VELLORE: The sleuths of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) have seized huge amount of cash and gold jewellery from the residence of a senior officer of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) located in Ranipet on Wednesday, sources said.

The raid at the residence was a follow-up action after a joint raid conducted by district inspection cell and DVAC at the officer’s ‘unofficial’ office building at Katpadi in Vellore district resulting in the seizure of Rs. 33.73 lakh from the building and a car.

Led by DSP Hemachitra, a team of DVAC consisting of three Inspectors- S Vijay, Rajinikanth and Vijayalakshmi-swooped down on the residence of M Pannirselvam, joint chief environmental engineer (JCEE) in Ranipet at 11 am.

The raids yielded crores of unaccounted cash and gold jewellery and silverware.

“We have seized Rs. 3.25 crore in cash, 450 sovereigns of gold and 6.5 kg silverware during the raid held at the residence of the JCEE,” said a top officer of DVAC.

The operation continued till late evening.

The DVAC team also seized some documents of properties in Vellore, Ranipet, Tiruvallur and Chennai, belonging to the family members of the officer.

Appraisers were brought to evaluate the valuables and note counting machines were used for counting the cash.

Pannirselvam caught into trouble after holding a review meeting of his subordinates at the TNPCB office located in Gandhi Nagar in Katpadi on Tuesday evening. The subordinates were stated to have paid him cash after the meeting, the sources stated.

Acting on a tip-off received by the district inspection cell, a joint team led by deputy inspection cell officer Jothi and DSP Hemachitra searched Pannirselvam’s ‘unofficial’ office building located at Municipal Colony in Viruthampet.

The officers seized Rs 31.23 lakh from the building and Rs 2.5 lakh from his car.

The sources informed that he had taken the two-storeyed building to hold illegal dealings although his stayed in his own house in Ranipet.

The money, gold ornaments and silverware seized from his unofficial office and residence cash were stated to have been accumulated through bribe collected from private firms seeking clearance of the pollution watchdog.

Six divisions-Vellore, Vaniyambadi, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Hosur and Dharmapuri-falls under the jurisdiction of Pannirselvam.

He had been serving as District Environmental Engineer (DEE) in Vaniyambadi division before being promoted to JCEE.