Telangana Sheep Scam: Ex-minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav’s OSD, livestock agency CEO held

Hyderabad: The officials of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials arrested two more officials in the Criminal Misappropriation Case (RCO), registered against the officials of the Animal Husbandry Department on Friday, as part of the investigation into the Sheep Distribution Scheme scam.

The ACB report pegged the loss to the government due to the officials’ actions at Rs 2.10 crores.

The two officials were identified as Telangana State Livestock Development Agency chief executive officer (CEO) Sabavath Ramchander and Gundamaraju Kalyan Kumar, former OSD for the then minister for Animal Husbandry, Talasani Srinivas Yadav.

Ramchander was the former managing director of TSSGDCF (Telangana State Sheep and Goat Development Cooperative Federation Ltd).

Kalyan Kumar is said to have colluded and conspired with private persons and resorted to gross illegal acts and violations in the course of the discharge of their duties. The duo violated all the instructions issued for the procurement of sheep and deliberately involved private persons/brokers in the procurement process.

How did the two officials misappropriate state funds?

According to the ACB report, Sabavath Ramchander and Kalyan Kumar deliberately gave instructions to all district joint directors/DVAHOS of the Animal Husbandry Department to facilitate the misappropriation of government money through private persons.

Thus, the officials and private persons illegally obtained undue advantage and caused wrongful loss to the government exchequer and thus misappropriated government funds worth Rs 2.10 crores.

The report stated that the two accused performed their official duties improperly and dishonestly to obtain undue advantage and caused huge revenue loss to the government.

The two accused officers around 4 pm were produced before the first additional special judge for ACB cases in Hyderabad for judicial remand. Further investigation is on.