The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (VACB) on Sunday (July 20, 2025) claimed it had uncovered “widespread and entrenched corruption” within the Kerala State Motor Automobile division (MVD).
On Saturday, VACB officers, performing on intelligence collected covertly over a number of weeks, swooped down on 81 MVD workplaces throughout the State, as a part of a centrally coordinated simultaneous operation code-named “Clear Wheels”.
The shock inspections focused 17 RTOs and 64 Sub-Regional Transport Workplaces (SRTOs). Investigators stated clerical and enforcement officers at RTOs benefited from the racket.
‘Perfunctory’ examinations
High officers instructed The Hindu {that a} community of “dishonest” MVD officers hooked up to the Regional Transport Workplaces (RTOs) had devised a wide range of unlawful strategies to permit autos looking for health certificates and driving license aspirants to cross inspections by conducting “perfunctory examinations”, probably jeopardising the protection of lakhs of street customers, together with motorists and pedestrians.
Officers stated that re-registration of ageing autos, issuance of health certificates, permits for lorries and buses, and conducting driving checks for everlasting driving licenses had been among the many central avenues of corruption within the MVD.
Official-agent nexus
They said that the shock raids had revealed that officers labored in live performance with brokers who collected the bribe cash from service seekers, which they then clandestinely handed on to the automobile inspectors at weekends after taking a considerable lower.
The company said that a good portion of the bribes collected from the general public was handed on to the officers by brokers as UPI transactions. VACB investigators stated a preliminary verification of the UPI transactions of a number of MVD officers revealed that that they had illicitly acquired a complete quantity of ₹7,84,598. “The quantity is merely the iceberg’s tip,” a senior official stated.
“A typical observe at RTOs is to reject on-line functions for registering new autos, transferring possession of current ones and issuing permits for business autos, citing minor errors, forcing the candidates to method brokers for the general public service,” he added.
The VACB discovered that functions “attested” by brokers had been cleared rapidly, with out following any order of priority. “Scores of impartial functions, together with for license renewal, learner’s license, worldwide license and no objection certificates for inter-State automobile transfers, gathered mud in RTO workplaces pending clearance as a result of no intermediary sponsored them,” an investigator stated.
RTOs caught off guard
The VACB had timed the RTO raid for the weekend closing time on Saturday afternoon. The shock inspections appeared to have caught RTO officers and their brokers off guard. In Nilambur SRTO, brokers discovered ₹49,300 “swiftly thrown exterior the window” by officers.
The VACB confiscated ₹1,40,760 from brokers throughout the State. Many had been caught with big sums of unaccounted cash in RTO workplaces”, an official stated. The company has detained no less than 11 suspected intermediaries for questioning. Director Common of Police, VACB, Manoj Abraham, supervised the anti-corruption drive.
Printed – July 20, 2025 04:15 pm IST
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