Arrest of a senior Government official with disproportionate assets of estimated Rs 500 crore by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) in Andhra Pradesh has created a sensation in the State.
The ACB sleuths raided the residence of Engineer-in-chief of Public Health Department Dr Pamu Pandaranga Rao at Vijayawada. They also raided and searched dozens of other places belonging to Rao and his family and unearthed a huge empire built with the ill-gotten wealth during more than 20 year long Government service.
Most of the disproportionate assets were in the form of land and buildings in four districts of Andhra Pradesh, including Visakhapatanam and three districts of Telangana in Hyderabad.
The ACB officials said that as per the preliminary assessment the market value of the assets was more than Rs 500 crore. Many of the properties were in the names of his wife Rajyalakshmi and his son. This was in addition to the properties in the name of other relatives and fictitious names.
The searches at as many as 14 places across the State yielded documents of lands and properties in Visakhapatanam, Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari of Andhra Pradesh and in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medak districts of Telangana.
The documents revealed that he had invested Rs 5 crore in a hospital in Visakhapatanam in the name of his wife and son. He had also set up two IT companies in his son’s name.
“This is the first time that huge assets were found in the possession of a Government employee in the State,” said a senior ACB official. The raids were carried out after a series of complaints against Panduranga Rao’s corrupt practices.
The ACB sleuths seized Rs 10 lakh in cash, 1.95 lakh US dollars. 1.1 kg gold, 9 kgs silver and two cars.
The documents seized showed that in prime areas of Visakhapatanam half of the properties belong to him. On the whole, he got 50 properties registered in the name of different relatives who in turn signed documents saying they had gifted the properties to Panduranga Rao and his wife.
His wife had 31 plots measuring15243 square yards, 27.11 acres of agriculture land at 20 places, two houses in Hyderabad with built up area of 4554 square years, a six floor hospital building.