HYDERABAD: The scam tainted Indiramma housing scheme has become a big problem for the Telangana government.
More than two months ago, the Crime Investigation Department had given its report on the Indiramma housing scam to the government, seeking its opinion on the investigation. The government is confused about who to nail in the scam.
The CID investigation is now on hold, and it is up to the state government to decide whether to go ahead with it or not.
According to sources, CID has sought the government’s opinion on whether to continue the investigation, as the irregularities and the number persons involved in the scam are in the thousands.
In just the first phase, when the CID took up the investigation randomly in several villages of Telangana, it has found that more than 2,000 accused were involved in the scam from beneficiaries, village sarpanches to mandal and taluka-level government officials — everyone was involved.
Given the magnitude of the scam, investigative authorities have asked the government to decide if there must be some criteria to the probe, as to whom to nail as accused.
A senior official said, “if the CID goes according to rules, then it will face difficulty in naming thousands of accused in the scam. It will also not be easy to file chargesheets, with thousands of accused and their details and nature of offence.
And if at all the probe agency continues its work, then the government may also face the heat, as many village-level as well as state government officials are involved.”
Officials, who conducted the probe at the field level were shocked to see irregularities in every village they visited. Not even one case was genuine, said an official who was heading the probe team.
In many cases, it was found that officials showed houses as “constructed”, when they did not even exist. Some were only repaired, but it was claimed that they were newly constructed.
The amount was received against them. Also, people who are not form the weaker section and who already owned houses, got benefited, while many poor families, who deserve the benefits, didn’t get even a single cement bag, said a DSP who headed the team.
In Basheerabad of Tandur mandal in Ranga Reddy district, police was shocked to see empty plots, which were claimed as “constructed”.
Initially the vigilance and enforcement wing conducted the probe to check if 22.4 lakh houses as reported to have been constructed between 2004 to 2014 were really constructed.
Meanwhile, it is learnt, that the vigilance department, in its report, mentioned the internal inquiry conducted by the previous government and ordered suspension of 490 employees. Around 285 of them were dismissed.
The CID of Telangana police had registered as many as nine cases in connection with the alleged Indiramma housing scam.
