ACB unearths Rs 800 cr worth ill-gotten assets of engineer in AP

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Central Investigation Unit sleuths during the past 24 hours have found that Engineering-In-Chief of Public Health and Municipal Engineering Department Pamu Panduranga Rao has amassed an ill-gotten wealth of Rs 800 cr. The raids that began on Friday are still continuing in several places of AP and Telangana simultaneously as the officer is not cooperating with the ACB team.

The ACB team expressed shock over the quantum of wealth that they have unearthed which include gold, silver and other valuable metals, properties in half of the districts, a hospital under construction and investments in several companies. Rao whose take home salary is just Rs 45,000 per month has purchased over 40 tangible assets on his and relatives names starting from 1993 at



the rate one property every six months. 

During the raid on Friday the ACB sleuths have recovered cash of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 1.95 lakh worth US dollars, Rs 25 lakh in a bank, household equipment of Rs 15 lakh, 1.1 kilos of gold, and 9 kilos of silver. The ACB also found a big cache of dry fruits worth lakhs from his Visakhapatnam residence. Pandu Ranga Rao who has joined government service 30 years ago as Deputy Executive Engineer in Municipal Engineering Department rose to high levels after his stint as Executive Engineer in Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation.

Sources in ACB say that they are confident of presenting Rao before the court for remand on Saturday if cooperates with the investigators. The search operations are still going on.