ACB raids Anantapur Panchayat Raj engineer; reveals gold, land worth Rs 45 crore

Anantapur: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths on Friday found over Rs 45 crore-worth illegal assets belonging to Kondasani Suresh Reddy, an Assistant Executive Engineer working with Anantapur Panchayat Raj Department. Suresh Reddy also served as PA to former MP JC Divakar in the past.

DSP of Anantapur ACB, M Nagabhusanan said that the bureau officials raided Suresh Reddy and his relatives’ houses simultaneously in three other places in Anantapur and Kurnool districts of Rayalaseema.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau official said that they arrested Suresh Reddy for possessing disproportionate assets over and above his known sources of income. The seized illegal assets include cash, gold, land holdings, houses, and a few others, estimated to be around Rs 4.17 crore as per the registration value (document value). However, it would easily be more than Rs 45 crore as per current market rates.

The ACB officials seized documents concerning Reddy’s illegal assets. The sleuths found a G+1 house at Ramnagar, G+5 commercial complex at Jesus Nagar in Anantapur, 31 cents of land in Kappalabanda, vacant land of around one acre near Puttaparthy in Anantapur. Reddy’s wife K Pushpalatha owned 1.68 acres of farmland at Yenumalapalli in Anantapur district.

Apart from immovable assets, the officers also found gold ornaments weighing about 332.4 grammes worth Rs 4.5 lakh, household articles worth Rs 1.98 lakh in Reddy’s possession. The Anti-Corruption sleuths also discovered that Reddy had a bank balance worth Rs 38,000 and liquid cash of Rs 4.13 lakh, and two cars.

Reddy had joined as a tracer in the Panchayat Raj Department and rose to Assistant Executive Officer a few years back. The raids also revealed that Reddy had indulged in illegal activities and there was a considerable gap between his income (salary) and his assets. The accused was produced before the ACB Special Court on Friday evening.