The Central Crime Branch (CCB) on Wednesday busted a major e-pass-on-payment racket, involving revenue officials and taxi drivers.
A senior revenue inspector, a junior assistant and three taxi drivers who were part of the network were arrested by the police after deploying a decoy.
The suspects have been identified as E. Kumaran, 35, senior revenue inspector; M. Udayakumar, 34, a junior assistant at the Chennai Collectorate — both posted at the e-process centre in the Chennai Corporation — and three taxi drivers — A. Manoj Kumar, 31, of Tiruvanchery; R. Vinothkumar, 32, and Devendran, 32, of Ambattur.
The suspects were booked under sections 269(Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 420 (Cheating) of the IPC and provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act and the Disaster Management Act.
As e-pass requests of a large number of applicants were being repeatedly rejected, some travel operators cashed in on this and started advertising on social media and message-sharing platforms about issuance e-passes on payment of money.
The matter was brought to the notice of City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan and the police deployed a reporter as decoy and approached one of the drivers who offered an e-pass on payment of ₹2,000. He confessed to being part of a network of drivers who approached the officials when customers came forward.
The officials approved requests on receiving money and Aadhaar card details of individuals. People did not even have to explain the nature of their emergencies.
The police added that further investigation was on to ascertain the involvement of officials from the Chennai Corporation and other districts.
