VIJAYAWADA: Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) officials on Saturday continued their search at the houses of accused commercial tax officers U Yedukondalu (additional commissioner, state tax) and K Anant Reddy (Superintendent, refund & enforcement section) who were caught red-handed accepting Rs 23.5 lakh as bribe on Friday in their office.
ACB officials on Friday raided the commercial tax office in Eedupugallu village and caught Yedukondalu, Ananth Reddy, ITD Cementation India Limited legal adivsor A Satyanarayana and the company’s deputy manager (accounts) Gopal Sharma while making the transaction in exchange for an input subsidy of `4.2 crore on GST with regard to the company’s transports.
ACB officials formed two teams and conducted searches in the houses of the two accused officers in Patamata and Auto Nagar in the city. During the searches, officials found `1.5 lakh in Yedukondalu’s house. Later, all the four accused were produced in an ACB court and sent to judicial remand.
During investigation, ACB officials observed that ITD Cementation India Limited representatives approached the accused officer through some mediators a few days ago and offered him `25 lakh for the favour. It is understood that Anant Reddy and Satyanarayana played a key role in the illegal transaction.
According to sources within the Commercial Taxes Department, more officers in the Department are likely to be involved in the incident.
“They collude with private companies and accept bribes in exchange for favours. “An internal monitoring system will be set up to maintain transparency in departmental operations,” a senior official told.