VISAKHAPATNAM: Officials of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) seized the original documents of town and country planning director G.V. Raghu, who was arrested for allegedly amassing crores of rupees in illegal assets.
After three days of interrogation, the ACB on Monday recovered all the documents at the house of one of his close aides in Vijayawada.
Talking to newsmen, ACB (Visakha Urban) DSP K. Ramakrishna Prasad said that with numerous raids over the last couple of months on government officials suspected of having disproportionate assets, Raghu feared that he would be the next target.
He handed over important documents of his assets to his aide T. Mohan Kumar of Vijayawada for safe custody. The ACB officials said that Mohan Kumar had worked as personal secretary for former Mayor of Vijayawada Anuradha Devi. That is how Kumar met Raghu and later began acting as his benami.
“We have seized original documents of the properties besides cash of '50 lakh and 11 kg gold ornaments. Some more documents of land in Chittoor, Krishna districts were also recovered at his aunt Gayathri Devi’s house,” the DSP added.
The ACB officials have learned that Raghu had befriended one D. Subba Rao, a resident of Vijayawada city and owner of a renowned shopping mall in the city. Raghu and Subba Rao met when there were few issues pertaining to the shopping mall pending with the Vijaywada Municipal Corporation.
Officials said for all the assets he procured, Raghu would to cash and in return get cheques to purchase assets. This also proved that Subba Rao resorted to money laundering in his name as well as that of Raghu and his mother-in-law Kalavathi. Subsequently, these assets are to be shown as firms which were in the name of Ms Gayathri Devi, the ACB officer added.
