It has become a tough job for the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials to elicit information from Pamu Panduranga Rao, Public Health and Municipal Engineering Department Engineer-in-Chief, who has been booked in a disproportionate assets case.
The ACB sleuths conducted raids on the properties of Mr. Panduranga Rao in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on June 24 and unearthed properties worth more than ₹12 crore (Sub-Registrar) value. As the accused engineer was not cooperative, the ACB filed a petition in the court which granted it four days custody. “Panduranga Rao is maintaining silence and is not answering any question posed by the officers in custody. The officer is not cooperating with the investigation officers,” said ACB Director General R.P. Thakur.
“To any question, he is replying ‘not known’, ‘forgotten’ and ‘no idea’. Not only Panduranga Rao, the entire family is following the same strategy and is giving same replies. Very rarely we get such case,” the DG said on Thursday.
A native of Krishna district, the Engineer-in-Chief allegedly amassed ill-gotten money in some crores of rupees, and about 35 house plots, $1.95 lakh, a huge quantity of gold and silver ornaments and other properties that were registered in the name of his wife Rajya Lakshmi. “We will take the help of the I-T Department and other agencies in investigating the case. The ACB custody will be over in the next two days,” Mr. Thakur said.
