Town Planning Director With Rs 500 Crore Property Lands In ACB Net

Vijayawada: Raids by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on the properties of AP Town Planning Director Golla Venkata Raghu revealed unaccounted assets worth over Rs 500 crore.

The ACB conducted simultaneous raids on Monday on the properties of Venkata Raghu and his relatives at 15 locations. They included properties in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Mangalagiri, Nellore and Shirdi. Similar raids were also conducted at the properties of Vijayawada town planning assistant officer Venkata Siva Prasad. The latter is also a distant relative of Venkata Raghu. ACB officials said that Venkata Raghu transfered several of his 'benami' accounts to Siva Prasad and his wife Gayathri.

The raids also revealed that Gayathri worked as an engineer in the Town Planning department and quit her job. Most of the documents seized by the officials mentioned her as the owner of the properties. They include a function hall constructed in 1.4 acres of land in Gannavaram, about 16 flats in several apartments in Gannavaram and several hundreds of acres of agricultural land in Velpuru. The gold seized from Siva Prasad's house included several sovereigns of gold, jewellery and golden idols which are valued at over Rs 10 crore.