Officer under scanner hid docus in aide’s house

VISAKHAPATNAM: Town & Country Planning director GV Raghu from whom disproportionate assets worth `100 crores (registration value) was seized had stored all the documents pertaining to illegal properties at the house of one of his aides fearing crackdown,  the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths have said, adding that all the original property documents have been seized.The ACB officials recovered all the documents from the house T Mohan Kumar, an aide of Raghu, in Vijayawada during raids. The ACB officials came to know about the hideout after the tainted officer confessed to it during the three-day interrogation.

“With regular raids on various government officials across the State in the last couple of months, Raghu had packed all the important documents of his illegal assets in a bag and given it T Mohan Kumar for safe custody. Mohan Kumar worked as the personal secretary for former Vijayawada Mayor Anuradha Devi and that was where Raghu met him and convinced him to be his benami,” ACB DSP K Ramakrishna Prasad said here on Monday, producing the documents before the media. 

Apart from the original documents, cash of `50 lakh and 11 kg gold, a few more documents of lands in Chittoor and Krishna districts were also recovered from Gayathri Devi, wife of N Siva Prasad who is another benami of Raghu. During the interrogation, the ACB DSP said, Raghu spilled the beans as to how he had amassed the illegal properties through money laundering. 

Raghu befriended one D Subba Rao, a resident of Vijayawada and owner of a shopping mall. 
“Raghu and Subba Rao met several times when the latter faced some issues pertaining to his mall from Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and they became friends. Raghu used to give his ill-gotten cash to Subba Rao who converted it to cheques and demand drafts through his account. And Raghu bought the properties by giving those cheques and DDs in the name of his benamis including his mother-in-law Kalavathi. Subsequently, these assets were shown as the firms registered in the name of Gayathri Devi,” the DSP said, explaining the modus operandi.  Sivaprasad works as a junior technical officer in engineering department of VMC.