Banker booked by CBI for disproportionate assets

Anti Corruption Bureau sleuths raided houses of K. Suresh Kumar, general manager of the Mahbubnagar District Industries Centre, and unearthed properties worth `12 crore. A raid at one of his residences in Hyderabad revealed that the officer had 2.6 kg of gold ornaments worth `73 lakh and `15 lakh cash.

Raids were concurrently carried out in Mahbubnagar and Visakhapatnam, where Suresh Kumar owned land. Kumar was arrested and produced an ACB special court after a case of disproportionate assets (DA) was registered against him.

A senior ACB officer told this newspaper that Kumar, 55, had amassed wealth through bribes collected for registration fee. He allegedly demanded kickbacks from industry owners seeking to set up projects in and around Mahbubnagar.

Most of the complainants were victims who were forced to pay bribe despite having documents. Kumar had acquired a five-storey building, a flat, and 2 open plots for construction of villas, complainants said.

The ACB received written complaints backed by evidence. An inquiry revealed that Kumar delayed approval to those who refused to pay bribe. The Central Bureau of Investigation conducted searches at the house and office of a field officer of Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank, Isnapur branch after registering a disproportionate assets case against his known sources of income.

According to the CBI, Peddasetty Durga Prasad, the field officer earned exorbitantly between 2016-2017, which is disproportionate to his known sources of income. The CBI said that the man had diverted the funds from the bank to invest in the stock market.

The CBI received information that since 2016, the accused had created a fake housing loan account in the name of existing borrowers without their knowledge, and transferred the am- ount to his personal accounts with Kotak Bank and HDFC bank.

During the searches, CBI found that Prasad was in possession of assets to the tune of `11,46,29,721. The officials also found that his income between January 2016 and August 2017 was about `8.50 lakh.

The CBI registered a case under Section 13 (2) r/w 13 (1) (e) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1998. In an incident which came to light on Friday, a four-year-old was abducted and sexually assaulted by a 26-year-old youth in Yousufguda. The accused has been identified as Deepu Kumar Srivastav, a painter who stays at Yousufguda, police said.

“On May 29, the fouryear-old was sent to a nearby kirana shop by her mother. While the girl was stepping out of the shop, she was picked up by Deepu, who took her to his place and sexually assaulted her,” said P. Chandra Shekar, Jubilee Hills police inspector.

When the girl took longer than expected, the mother herself went to the shop and the shopkeeper told her that a man had taken her.

“When the mother and shopkeeper started searching, they found her at Deepu’s place, which is within a 100 metres from the shop,” added the official. A case under Sections 376 (2) (rape), 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 366 (kidnap, abduct or induce a woman) of IPC and PoCSO. Deepu was sent to judicial remand.