‘Rs 1,000 crore loss to Telangana’: ED raids at Talasani Yadav’s OSD in sheep distribution scam case

Hyderabad: Trouble brewing for former BRS Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav. The probe carried out by the central investigating agency, Enforcement Directorate, has revealed that irregularities caused in the sheep distribution have caused the State’s exchequer a loss of Rs 1,000 crore.

ED sleuths carried out raids on July 30 at eight locations in Hyderabad in connection with financial irregularities in the implementation of the ‘Sheep Rearing Development Scheme (SRDS)’ in Telangana.

Searches were conducted at the premises of G Kalyan Kumar (OSD to the then Animal Husbandry minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav) as well as certain beneficiaries and middlemen identified during the ED investigation.

What led to the probe?

ED initiated an investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Hyderabad. In one FIR, it was alleged that after the formation of the new government in the State, the OSD had removed some records from the department office by breaking in.

Another FIR was registered by a complainant, a sheep merchant, alleging that Rs 2.1 crore, which was due to be paid to them for supplying sheep units, was siphoned off by the Departmental Assistant Directors by diverting the amount to other unrelated accounts.

In addition, the CAG’s Audit Report till March 2021 revealed several irregularities in the implementation of the SRDS scheme viz. non-maintenance of beneficiary wise details, improper record of invoices pertaining to transportation invoices and payments, payments against invoices containing fake/passenger vehicles/non-transport vehicle registration numbers, duplicate tags allotted to sheep units, sheep units allotted to dead/non-existent persons, etc.

Loss of Rs 253.93 crore in seven districts

The CAG’s audit report is limited to only seven districts (out of 33 in Telangana) wherein the estimated loss to the government was pegged at Rs 253.93 crore. On a proportionate basis for all the 33 districts in the entire State of Telangana, the loss is likely to exceed Rs 1,000 crore.

The ED investigation revealed that substantial funds were transferred to the bank accounts of several persons/entities towards payment in lieu of the supply of sheep for beneficiaries under SRDS.

However, the investigation revealed that prior to the launch of SRDS, these beneficiaries were not involved in the business of the sale/supply of sheep. Moreover, the investigation also indicated that no sale/purchase of sheep was ever made by these recipients of funds.

Payments made to non-existent vendors

Thus, the investigation revealed that government funds were illegally diverted to bank accounts of bogus vendors. ED investigation also substantiated the findings of the audit, which identified payments made to fictitious vendors and evidence of recycling of sheep units, ostensibly to fraudulently claim disbursements from government funds without actual supply of sheep units.

Search operations led to the recovery and seizure of incriminating material evidencing transactions indicating illegal payments in the form of kickbacks to various government officials and others.

Additionally, documents about numerous bank accounts, including blank cheque books, passbooks and debit cards associated with over 200 suspected dummy/mule accounts linked to an illegal online betting application, were recovered from one of the premises. Searches also led to the seizure of 31 used mobile phones and over 20 SIM cards, which are suspected to have been utilised in the operation.