Andhra Municipal official caught in ACB’s net with Rs 500 crore disproportionate assets
- Town and Country Planning director GV Raghurami Reddy caught with more than Rs 500 crores worth of assets
- The ACB raids continued on Tuesday with bank lockers still to be unlocked and investigated
- A government official possessing such assets shocked the officers who booked Raghurami Redddy under the Prevention of Corruption Act
- ACB also arrested his cousin NV Sivaprasad in Vijayawada Municipal Administration
FollowAndhra Pradesh ACB (Anti Corruption Bureau) arrested Visakhapatnam’s Town and Country Planning Director Golla Venkata Raghurami Reddy under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly amassing assets worth Rs 500 crores along with his cousin NV Sivaprasad, a Vijayawada Municipal Corporation official.
ACB authorities simultaneously raided his house and other properties in 15 places, including Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Shirdi. Raghu established eight private companies in the names of binamis. Sai Sadan Infra, Sai Sudha Avenues, Sevari Builders, Srimatha Infra, Hotel Sai Suraj Kunj in Shirdi, Suraj Kunj Complex, Sai Orphanage in Shirdi And Nalluri Charitable Trust in Gannavaram along with 300 acres of valuable land in Gannavaram near Vijayawada among other properties.
According to ACB DG RP Thakur, ACB officers found Rs 50 lakh in cash, 11 kilos gold, 25 kilos silver and diamond jewellery at Reddy’s residence.
Raghu companies are run in the name of Venkata Subba Rao and he has a special park in Rowfin Real Estates in the outskirts of Gannavaram where a pyramid house made of copper was built for the comfort of his family.
Raids were also conducted under the supervision of ACB’s deputy superintendent of police Ramadevi at Sivaprasad’s residence in Vijayawada, where they found gold and diamonds worth Rs 19 crore stashed in washing machines. Nalluri trust is run by Sivaprasad in his surname.
According to Hindustan Times sources, Sivaprasad’s wife Gayatri was also acting as a benami of Raghu. She was found to be in possession of several promissory notes, gold ornaments, and gold idols and owns one convention hall in Mangalagiri, 16 flats in several apartment complexes and hundreds of acres farmlands in Velpur.
Eight people, including Reddy’s in-laws, were found to be holding properties on behalf of Reddy. Apart from his own name, he had the properties, including houses and land in the name of his wife, children and other relative as well as associates.
Raghu, who joined the town planning department as assistant director in 1988, later worked in Nellore, Anantapur, and Visakhapatnam. Recently, he took Rs 20 lakhs bribes from 50 unqualified officers and gave them promotions minting Rs 10 crores in the process. He was accused of issuing the promotions without consulting the respective officials. In course of these promotions, he had disagreements with his colleague who recently retired and was the person to inform the ACB.
Raghurami Reddy was to retire on Wednesday and had planned a farewell party to many of his relatives and associates at a resort out of the country and booked the air tickets for them, the ACB officials probing the case said.
