Vijayawada: ACB raids officer's home, finds unaccounted assets

VIJAYAWADA: Officials from Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday raided residence and other properties of an additional director rank officer and unearthed assets disproportionate to the known source of income. Bayyavarapu Suresh Babu, 56, was working as additional director in industries department till recently. He was transferred on charges of corruption and waiting for posting. “Coordinated searches were conducted at eight places, which include five places in Hyderabad, two places in Vijayawada, one place at Piduguralla in Guntur district and one place at Kurnool,” said an ACB officer.

According to the registered value, properties, which include agriculture lands, commercial plots, gold, cash, investments and vehicles, are worth around Rs 3 crore. The current market value, however, could be far higher. A senior official said that the total market value of these assets could be around Rs 40 crore. The ACB officials still have not opened a bank locker belonging to Suresh Babu. The central investigating team of the ACB has conducted raids at multiple locations from 7:30 am on Monday.

The ACB has found that Suresh Babu held a majority of his properties in the names of his family members. He was arrested and produced before the court. He was sent to judicial custody by the special ACB court. He entered in services as assistant director in the AP industries department in 1987 and worked at Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Nalgonda. He was promoted as deputy director in 1993 and worked at Visakhapatnam, Nalgonda and Sangareddy. In 2008, he was promoted as additional director in the office of commissioner of industries and is presently working at Velagapudi.