Hyderabad: REDCO (Renewable Energy Development Corporation) divisional engineer (DE) Mutyam Venkata Ramana was on Wednesday arrested in a disproportionate assets (DA) case after Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) investigators unearthed assets worth over Rs 150 crore allegedly belonging to him.ACB special teams conducted simultaneous searches at seven places, including the house of the accused in Kothaguda, his office, and seven other places belonging to relatives, associates and benamis of the divisional engineer.During the searches, ACB teams found documents of several properties — four flats in Serilingampally and Kukatpally, a G+3 commercial building in 160 square yards at Anjaneya Nagar in Moosapet, and a G+5 commercial building in 250 square yards at Guttala Begumpet in Madhapur — belonging to the officer.ACB also found evidence that the accused has constructed 10 residential apartments at Anjaneya Nagar in Moosapet with an estimated investment of Rs 20 crore. “The accused also has made significant investment in the construction sector through four construction firms registered in the name of his wife,” ACB said in an official statement.The investigators also found Rs 52 lakh bank balance, two kg gold ornaments, three cars worth Rs 45 lakh, household articles and electronic gadgets worth Rs 30 lakh, 19 foreign liquor bottles and an IMFL bottle, all worth Rs 2.5 lakh.Regarding the liquor bottles, Madhapur excise sleuths registered a separate case after being intimated by ACB personnel.“The total value of the assets unearthed is about Rs 27.65 crore. Their market value will be about Rs 150 crore. Further verification regarding additional assets is underway,” an ACB official said.ACB sleuths booked a DA case against Venkata Ramana under the Prevention of Corruption Act for “acquiring assets by indulging in corrupt practices and dubious means during his service”. The accused was arrested and he would be produced before the court on Thursday.Prior to this, while Venkata Ramana was working as divisional engineer (technical) at the office of the superintending engineer (operations), Cyber City Circle, Hyderabad, ACB caught him when he allegedly demanded and accepted Rs 25,000 bribe from the complainant for processing the final estimation approval file on Dec 12, 2019. Subsequently, he was arrested on Dec 13, 2019.ACB has filed a chargesheet in the case and it is currently pending before the court. During the searches conducted at his house in 2019 on the day of the trap, Rs 26.5 lakh cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 22.6 lakh were seized by ACB.
