Two Kerala government officials were arrested on Friday in Wayanad district for the embezzlement of relief materials, police said. A senior police official told IANS that the arrests were made based on a complaint received from another senior government official. According to the complaint, the two accused, S. Thomas and M.P. Dinesh, were stopped by residents at a relief camp Panamaram village while they were loading the relief materials into a vehicle.

Thomas and Dinesh said that they were moving the materials to another camp in the village. But the residents called the police and upon interrogation, it was found that they lied. Meanwhile, a similar incident was also reported from Chengannur where the accused was a temporary government official.

Relief materials have been coming into Kerala from various places ever since the heavy monsoon rains hit the state on May 29 followed by subsequent floods leading to some 370 deaths and displacing over a million people from their homes.