Babus helped guilty engineer

Hyderabad, Dec. 12: All the bureaucrats who helped Mr V. Suryanarayana, who was arrested with Rs 23 crore assets by the ACB on Friday, violated a ban on the engineer. The animal husbandry department, under whose control the fisheries commissioner functions, had issued orders prohibiting Mr Suryanarayana from executing civil works and had withdrawn his financial powers because of alleged irregularities in previous works that he executed in the parent department.

In one case, the registrar of cooperative societies, issued orders (GO Ms No. 89) on November 1, 2007, appointing Mr Suryanarayana as execution authority and wrote to the fisheries commissioner, Mr Arvind Kumar, on December 19, 2007, informing him about the development. Though the commissioner opposed the move, the animal husbandry department on the instructions from the minister, Mr Buddhaprasad, issued orders permitting Mr Suryanarayana to continue with the execution of the work.

A chief engineer of the roads and buildings volunteered to work in supervisory cadre over Mr Suryanarayana, based on which the minister directed officials to issue orders in favour of Mr Suryanarayana. In another case, the chief secretary noted in the file that work could be entrusted to Mr Suryanarayana while the minorities welfare principal secretary, directly issued orders appointing the official as execution authority. The AP Residential Schools Society also awarded construction of school buildings to Mr Suryanarayana.

Sources said Mr Suryanarayana submitted false declarations to his higher officials that he was not executing any work outside. In 1989, the ACB had registered a disproportionate assets against the official. The trial is still pending in the special court, Vijayawada. Assets worth Rs 18.14 lakh were found in that search.

Other assets unearthed on Friday included four buildings in Kakinada, two 3-bedroom flats in Singapore City on the city outskirts. Also unearthed were assets like five bank accounts and fixed deposits worth Rs 3.5 lakh, 450 grams of gold, 8 kg silver, Rs 1 lakh cash, household articles worth Rs 8 lakh, insurance policies Rs 2 lakh, a Scorpio and a Indigo car.

"The total immovable assets so far detected are worth Rs 22.85 crore and movable assets Rs 33 lakh," said the ACB additional director, Dr Ravisankar Ayyannar. The ACB is yet to open Mr Suryanarayana’s bank lockers in Kakinada, his native place, and obtain details from the savings bank accounts.