Launching a fresh state-wide crackdown against liquor syndicates on Wednesday, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested 20 persons in 16 districts on charges of committing fraud during the auction of liquor shops.
All those arrested are members of liquor syndicates against whom the ACB had been going all out for the past seven months. Investigations revealed that members of the syndicate were running shops in the names of white ration card-holders who did not have the financial resources to pay for the licences, thereby subverting the legal process and running the trade in collusion with officials.
These raids were seen as an attempt by the ACB to vindicate itself in the face of criticism that it was going slow in the investigation.
This was particularly so after the allegations that former Excise Minister Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao, now in jail, had received bribes from a syndicate and that many top political leaders, including PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana, had a stake in the liquor trade.
Moreover, the ACB is required to submit to the A.P. High Court on June 11 its second report on the status of its investigations to bust the liquor syndicates.
ACB Director-General B. Prasada Rao, when contacted, said the Bureau was pursuing the investigation in right earnest by booking cases and picking up people as and when evidence was forthcoming. Over the past few months, 48 cases had been booked and 104 persons arrested.
They were booked for manipulation of records, for conducting ‘benami' transactions and payment of ‘mamools' to prohibition and excise and police officials. Mr. Rao said they were collating the evidence gathered by special teams before launching prosecution.
It would take two to three months for the ACB to file the charge-sheets.
Those arrested on Wednesday were: Gutta Satyanarayana of Eluru (West Godavari district), Mamidala Venkateswara Rao of Kakinada (East Godavari), Y. Subba Rao of Kaikaluru and Uppala Ramprasad of Pedana in Krishna district, Meka Srinivas (Srikakulam), Anisetty Nageswar and K.E. Madhava Krishna (Kurnool), P. Narasimha Reddy, C. Suryanarayana and P. Venkata Naidu of Anantapur, Kothakapu Konda Reddy and K. Nagabhushana Rao of Chittoor, Devanaboina Nagendra (Kadapa), Ch. Sudhakar Reddy (Nellore), Dharma Rao (Prakasam), E. Raju Yadav (Ranga Reddy), N. Nageswara Rao (Nalgonda), Velichala Sriranga Rao (Karimnagar), B. Devi Das (Nizamabad) and V. Karunakar Reddy of Medak district.
Convicted for graft
Special Judge for SPE & ACB Cases, Nellore convicted former divisional engineer of APSPDCL, Rathnam Kesavulu, and sentenced him to undergo three years rigorous imprisonment and ordered the government to confiscate his property, including houses and house sites and a fixed deposit, totalling Rs.15.64 lakh.
The judge directed the government to sell the confiscated assets in a public auction, according to a press release issued by the Director General, Anti-Corruption Bureau, here on Wednesday.
