Andhra Pradesh ACB unearth Rs 100 crore assets held by town planner

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials on Monday said they unearthed assets worth a staggering Rs 100 crore held by Town Planning Department director Golla Venkata Raghu.

Around 15 teams of ACB officials searched properties belonging to Venkata Raghu in Mangalagiri, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Chittoor and Shirdi. The searches included the properties of his relatives, friends and proxies.

According to ACB officials, Raghu worked in Greater Vizag Municipal Corporation (GVMC) as chief city planner, and then in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) as deputy director and director.

Sources said bank lockers in the name of Raghu and his relatives are yet to be opened. Once they are opened, it is being estimated, the value of the assets run into several hundred crore rupees.

The ACB officials also raided the house of N Sivaprasad, a junior technical assistant in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, who is suspected to be a proxy for Venkata Raghu. To their surprise, they found a large amount of gold, silver and diamond jewellery, whose value is estimated to be several crore rupees.

Further, documents relating to land and other properties were seized. The initial estimate of their market value is said to be around Rs 15 crore. The raids are in progress.