Five retired employees of the GHMC were arrested by the Hyderabad police for their alleged involvement in the vehicle repair scam, that came to light nearly 9 years ago. The Hyderabad Central Crime Station sleuths said at least 15 more persons were to be arrested in the case. These employees created fake bills of repairing condemned vehicles and new vehicles (which had warranty period) and purchasing new spare parts. “Nearly ₹26 crore were misappropriated in this fashion, from 2007 to 2009. From drivers to foremen to engineer, different ranks of employees got share in the defrauded money,” the investigators said.
When reports about the alleged scam appeared in a section of the press in 2010, the govt. ordered an inquiry by the Vigilance and Enforcement wing, which revealed that, the indents were made in the name of purchasing spare parts for condemned vehicles as well as new vehicles. Based on the report, the top officials in the Municipal Administration directed that criminal action be initiated against the persons involved in the scam. Accordingly, GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy lodged a complaint in May 2016 with the CCS, leading to registration of a criminal case. Investigators identified more than 20 GHMC employees, most of whom have retired now, who colluded to claim bills causing wrongful loss to the government.
“Evidence was gathered against the driver, foreman, assistant engineer, deputy executive engineer, executive engineer and superintendent engineer rank employees,” a police officer said.
The arrested persons, Ramchandra Chary, R. Prabhakar, Mallikarjun, Hafeez Khan and Nageshwar Rao – retired foreman, assistant foreman, mechanic, chief transport officer and deputy executive engineer respectively – were remanded in judicial custody.
