Andhra Pradesh: Illegal assets worth Rs 70 crore seized from three officials in a single day 

Anti-Corruption Bureau conducts simultaneous raids on the properties of tainted officials at 19 places in Vizag
ACB sleuths examine the documents seized during a raid on the house of a tainted official in Vizag on Saturday | Express
ACB sleuths examine the documents seized during a raid on the house of a tainted official in Vizag on Saturday | Express

VISAKHAPATNAM: In a major catch, the sleuths of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raided the properties two mandal cluster village revenue officers (VROs) and a chainman of town planning department of Zone-III of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) on Saturday and seized assets worth around Rs 70 crore (market value) disproportionate to their known sources of income.
This is probably for the first time in Vizag that the properties of three government officials were raided in a single day.

Anti-graft teams led by ACB DSP (Visakhapatnam Urban) K Ramakrishna Prasad conducted simultaneous searches at the properties of Maddilapalem cluster VRO P Venkateswara Rao, Malkapuram cluster VRO K Sanjeev Kumar and GVMC chainman M Nageswara Rao from 5.30 am on Saturday.

Properties of Venkateswara Rao at China Gantyada and four other places, houses of Sanjeev Kumar and that of his relatives and friends at eight places in the city, Narsipatnam and Yelamanchili and the house of Nageswara Rao in four areas were searched.
Simultaneous raids were conducted at 19 places.

Illegal assets belonging to K Sanjeev Kumar worth Rs 3.77 crore, whose market value would be around Rs 40 crore, were seized.  
The sleuths also unearthed properties of VRO P Venkateswara Rao and chainman Nageswara Rao worth Rs 1.11 crore and Rs 1.31 crore (registration value) respectively.  

Sources said that the market value of the properties of the two officials will be around `30 crore.
According to ACB, Sanjeev Kumar had amassed illegal wealth and registered them in his name, apart from nine other persons including his wife and son.

The seized assets included documents for houses, vacant sites across the city, business establishments, gold and other valuables. Assets registered in the names of Sanjeev Kumar’s son K Dinesh Kumar and his relatives were seized. He has set up Dinesh Cement Industry and Manufacturing Clinker at Pedagantyada and a brick factory at Autonagar.

Sanjeev Kumar joined the service as a VRO in 2008 and worked at Maddilapalem Cluster-5, Ramnagar Cluster till 2015. At present, he is working as the VRO at Malkapuram cluster.
Another accused, Venkateswara Rao worked with the GVMC as a ‘mazdoor’ in 1997 before being elevated to the chainman post. He has been woking in the electrical section of the GVMC since September 2017.  

“The three officers used to demand huge kickbacks to clear the files moved to them from the e-seva counters. They used to demand bribes in the range between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh from applicants for issuing passbooks and others. We are now ascertaining how these VROs and the GVMC employee, all low-rank officials, have amassed such huge illegal assets in a short period,” ACB DSP Ramakrishna Prasad said.

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