Catching government employees indulging in corrupt practices is Anti-Corruption Bureau’s regular work. This had been going on for past several year. But Telangana State’s anti-graft wing set a new bench mark in year 2020 by going beyond this regular work.
It is no exaggeration to say that the ACB has set a new bench mark by tracing crime proceeds in several cases and arresting civilians aiding government servants. The case of Malkajgiri ACP Y. Narasimha Reddy in Rachakonda Commissionerate is a classic example.
A case of acquiring assets disproportionate to his known sources of income was registered against him on September 23, after raiding his office, residence and houses of his close relatives and acquaintances. The next step would be to gather documentary evidence to prove in the court of law that he amassed that wealth illegally.
In Narasimha Reddy’s case, the ACB sleuths did not confine to this. digging deeper into the ACP’s alleged corrupt actions, the ACB arrested eight civilians accused of aiding and abetting him in securing a high value property, nearly1,960 square yards of land before Hi-Tec city in Madhapur.
Fake documents
Investigators unravelled how these civilians created fake documents as owners of the 1,960 square yards of land, which actually belonged to the government. Four of them transferred the property to their legal heirs through gift deeds.
Another interesting cases are arrest of Shaikpet tahsildar Ch. Sujatha, Banjara Hills SI A. Ravinder and Revenue Inspector K. Nagarjuna for demanding bribes to update details of a property in a prime locality of Banjara Hills.
During the probe, the ACB authorities realised that Khalid, complainant in the case, presented fabricated documents to usurp government land measuing nearly one acre and valued at several crores of rupees.
They passed on the information to Hyderabad police who arrested Khalid for attempting to grab government land using fake documents.
The arrest of Keesara tahsildar E. Balraju was another curious case of disproportionate assets probed by the ACB in year 2020. It was widely discussed in the State for different factors like seizure of ₹1.10 crore following raid on the tahsildar’s house and Mr. Balraju’s suicide in prison later.
Even as Mr. Balraju was in prison, investigators booked another case against him after finding that he helped some persons illegally grab lands of others.
The news of he hanging himself to death with a towel to the window grill bar kicked off serious speculation about causes behind his death. Even before the tahsildar’s death receded from people’s memory, a private person arrested in the land transfer deals, Dharma Reddy, hanged himself to death in an open area.
The ACB authorities, with the same strength and infrastructure they had earlier, went beyond the corruption charges attempting to bring on records all persons connected to the corrupt practices.