HYDERABAD: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths on Thursday arrested four government employees for their alleged involvement in a sheep distribution scam.
The employees are accused of colluding with some private individuals to syphon off Rs 2.1 crore of the funds allocated for the state government’s sheep distribution programme. A senior ACB officer told TNIE that the Bureau has identified two private individuals in the case and they would be arrested soon.
The arrested employees have been identified as D Ravi, the assistant director of Kamareddy Veterinary Hospital, M Aditya Kesava Sai, the assistant director of the Animal Husbandry department at Medchal, P Raghupathi Reddy, an officer in the groundwater department at Rangareddy, and S Ganesh, deputy director of the adult education department.
They allegedly manipulated the list of beneficiaries and diverted the money into the accounts of ineligible individuals. Gachibowli police had initially registered the case and the ACB took over the investigation in January.
A senior ACB official told TNIE, “The investigation has found evidence of irregularities. It has been found that the accused officers were violating various Sections of the Animal Husbandry Acts and were purposefully depositing the money into some particular bank accounts. This money was withdrawn by the account holders who then split it with the accused officers.”
The ACB official said that the funds syphoned off pertained to the value of 120 units of sheep. Each unit consists of 31 sheep or a total of 3,720 animals.
“Apart from the four accused offices, we also identified two other private individuals involved in the scam and efforts are on to nab them,” the ACB officials said.Meanwhile, the arrested accused were sent to judicial remand on Thursday.