VIJAYAWADA: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials on Monday conducted simultaneous raids on the properties of an Assistant Commandant of AP Special Police and unearthed alleged disproportionate assets worth more than Rs 2.46 crore as per the government value. The market value of the unearthed assets, including two poultry farms in Chittoor district, may be much more.
The ACB officials said they received several petitions against Panthula Sankar, a DSP rank officer who worked for severaal years in Chittoor, and his activities had been under the ACB scanner for the past one year. Sankar joined the Police Department as a Sub-Inspector in 1989. He was promoted as a Circle Inspector in 2001.
ACB officials conduct raids at 13 places
Subsequently, he was elevated as a DSP in 2011. An ACB release said that he was posted as the Assistant Commandant of APSP Third Battalion in Kakinada on November 5, 2020.
During the raids conducted at 13 places in Tirupati, Palamaner, Rajampet, Nandalur and Tadipatri, the ACB officials found that Sankar and his family members possessed three buildings worth Rs 88.81 lakh as per the government value.
He owned nine house sites worth Rs 32.64 lakh and 20.98 acres of agricultural land worth Rs 22.51 lakh at Miniki village in Ramasamudram mandal of Chittoor district. Sankar also owned two poultry farms at Miniki and Irukupeta.
His other assets include a four-wheeler, a two-wheeler, fixed deposits worth Rs 28.99 lakh, insurance policies worth Rs 9.71 lakh, gold and silver worth more than Rs 3 lakh.
After the raids, the ACB arrested Sankar. The ACB officials said that preliminary investigation revealed that Sankar possessed assets worth more than Rs 2.46 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income.