CHENNAI: A woman working as the Child Protection Officer in Dharmapuri district lodged a complaint with Chennai police on Thursday alleging that the Social Welfare Minister Dr. V. Saroja asked her to either quit her “contractual job” or pay Rs 10 lakh as bribe to keep the job. The woman, who is a single mother, said in her complaint that she is facing not only facing a threat to her life from the minister but also a threat to her job.
The complainant, identified as Rajam Meenakshi, alleged that Dr Saroja called her to her residence on May 7 and kept her under captive custody for two hours despite her having undergone a surgery recently. “I got into the job during J.Jayalalithaa’s tenure and the Minister told me that the rate of the job I hold is Rs 30 lakhs and that I might have to pay Rs 10 lakh to keep the job or quit immediately,” she alleged in the petition.
Rajameenakshi further said that the minister told her to pay Rs 20 lakh if she wanted a transfer to Chennai and also pointed out that after the demise of former CM Jayalalithaa, there is no one to protect her. The minister said that her target was to amass wealth to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore in the coming years, Rajameenakshi further said.
“I was given appointment to discuss about an invitation that I had extended to her to participate in an event, but the discussions centred only round my job. Only then I realised that the pressure that I got from seniors were due to interference from the Minister,” the woman said. She also alleged that the Minister and her husband verbally abused her and cast remarks about her personal life.
