When the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths zeroed in on the sub-registrar of Gajuwaka, Visakhapatnam, Doddapaneni Venkaiah Naidu (55), on Monday to ascertain the amount of wealth that the officer had possessed disproportionate to his known sources of his income, they were in for a shock. They were not only surprised by the amount of wealth that he amassed - up to about ₹60 crore (market value) and ₹6 crore (paper value) - but also the way it was stashed in a benami name.
“We have come across many cases wherein assets were kept in benami names, but this was for the first time we have seen that the assets were kept in the name of his divorced first wife,” said sources in the ACB.
Living in same house
And what is more striking was that the sub-registrar was living with both his wives in the same house. It was evident that he had divorced his first wife only to safeguard himself from such raids. As per the ACB sources, Venkaiah Naidu married K. Roopa alias D. Roopala in 1996 and divorced her in 2004 on the pretext that she was not able to bear him child. He married one Nandini, who is presumed to be the sister of Roopa, in 2006 and was blessed with a daughter.
As per the records, about 75% of the assets were registered in the name of Roopa. The ground plus five-floor lodge named Kommineni Residency in Tirupati, which is worth about ₹2 crore, was registered in the name of his father-in-law K. Guruvaiah, father of Roopa.
In 2005, he started KR Real Estate and Builders and in 2016 Sri Sai Balaji Construction, and both the firms were registered in the name of his first wife.
He was earlier arrested by the ACB in January 2011 in a surprise check, wherein unaccounted money to the tune of ₹85,810 was found in his possession. He was suspended for four years and joined duty in 2015 and most of the properties were purchased in and after 2015.
As per DSP of ACB (CIU) Ramadevi, a locker in the name of Roopa in a private bank is yet to be opened. The locker in a PSU bank that was opened on Tuesday did not yield anything. The ACB officials said the net salary of the officer was ₹34,000 but he had been paying ₹38,000 per month as EMIs.
The accused was arrested and remanded for 14 days in the Visakhapatnam Central Jail on Tuesday.
The ACB is puzzled how to treat the case as most of the assets are in the name of his divorced wife.