DIAMONDS, GOLD FOUND AT HMDA BABU’S HOUSE

It rained gold, silver and diamonds – literally - at the house of suspended HMDA (planning) director, K. Purushotham Reddy on Sunday.

For the first time, the Anti-Corruption Bureau officials on Sunday conducted a search at the house of one of the suspended officials.

In the plush house furnished with high-end electronic gadgets and expensive furniture, the officials recovered diamonds, gold and silver custom-made jewelry worth `50 lakh. This apart, the ACB sleuths seized sarees worth `20 lakh. Other articles seized included foreign liquor of various brands and wristwatches of high-end companies. The ACB personnel also found `1.05 lakh currency and foreign currency.

When the ACB officials confronted Purushotham Reddy, he said that his relatives and wellwishers gifted the foreign liquor and the currency to him. However, we are yet to find the source of the jewelry, said ACB DSP, City, Ashok Kumar.

The officials, according to sources, were expecting to find documents pertaining to properties. To their disappointment, the official who was caught earlier in 2009 in a similar case was clever enough not to keep any property documents at his house. The search was done after a local court granted sixday custody of the suspended official to ACB two days ago.

The ACB officials had registered a DA case against Purushotham Reddy and conducted searches at his relatives’ houses and offices on February 2. However, they could not conduct any search at the house of Purushotham Reddy as he had locked his house and left before the ACB officials reached his house. The ACB officials had sealed the house on February 2 after obtaining orders from the court.

On Sunday, a team finally conducted a search at the house of Purushotham Reddy, in his presence.