VIJAYAWADA: A week after Kurnool police arrested six persons of an eight-member extortion gang which threatened government officials by posing as ACB officials, genuine Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials on Tuesday carried out surprise raids on government offices across the state to crack the whip on corrupt officials.
The ACB sleuths swung into action by acting against officers who were duped by fake anti-graft officials and had lost money to the latter. Thirteen teams were formed and raids were conducted on government offices across Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Eluru, Vijayawada, Ongole, Nellore, Tirupati and Kadapa.
The officers whose offices were raided are deputy engineer of R&B John Viklif, joint chief inspector of factories J Siva Sankar Reddy, deputy collector of Eluru R Prabhakara Rao, executive engineer (rural water supply) Venkateswara Rao, motor vehicle inspector (Markapuram) K Ramachandra Rao, RDO P Umadevi, deputy commissioner of GST, state tax Y Venkata Durga Prasad, industrial chief inspector K Parameswara Rao, motor vehicle inspector (Gudur) T Raghavara Rao, executive engineer G Chandrasekhar, municipal commissioner of Palamaneru Vijayasimha Reddy and deputy superintending engineer (irrigation circle) Ch Krishna Murthy.
Addressing a press conference at the ACB office here on Tuesday, bureau joint director (Rayalaseema Zone) Reddy Gangadhar Rao said the six persons arrested a week ago, along with two other accused (who were previously arrested for chain snatching crimes) formed a gang after watching and getting inspired by Suriya-starrer flick ‘Gang’. He added that the gang closely followed the news of ACB traps and raids and prepared a list of officials they wanted to target. “It duped 13 government employees and collected bribes to the tune of Rs 28.50 lakh by threatening them. The officials paying the gang itself implies that the former have committed irregularities and are corrupt.”
The bureau said many officials paid the gang through cash deposit machines. “The issue came to our notice only when some honest officers alerted us as they also had been contacted by the gang.”
Who paid what