Suspense Crime Sach Ka Dam
Berhampur: Police have arrested 5 people including 2 RTO officials for illegally collecting money from trucks plying on NH-16 in Odisha’s Ganjam district. Giving information about this, an official said that Ganjam’s Additional Regional Transport Officer K. Venkatesh, Junior Motor Vehicle Inspector (MVI) Ratikant Nayak, and 3 others have been arrested. Berhampur Superintendent of Police Saravana Vivek M. said that the Golanthara police had received information about a group of young people illegally collecting money from trucks at Girishola on NH-16.
The SP said that the accused used to promise the truck drivers that if they paid the money, they would be able to easily take their vehicles forward without any checking by the officials ofthe Ganjam RTO office. The police officer said that a police team from Golanthara police station reached the spot and found at least four people stopping a vehicle and collecting money. Police detained three of them, while one person fled from the spot. Police said that during interrogation, the three revealed that they were working on behalf of some officials of RTO, Ganjam, and also revealed their names. They were collecting money from the trucks so that the RTO officialswouldo not check their vehicles on NH-16.
‘Officers were members of the recovery WhatsApp group’
The accused said that the money collected was later given to the RTO officials through cash or online transactions. The SP said that for this campaign of illegal collection of money, the accused officers had added their ‘agent’ in a WhatsApp ‘group’ and the officers themselves were also its members. The details of the trucks paying money were shared in their ‘WhatsApp’ group so that they could not be checked by the RTO officials on NH-16. He said that a case has been registered against all 5 accused under various sections of BNS and the Anti-Corruption Act. Police said that an investigation was going on to find out other people involved in this racket.
