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ACB seizes Rs 10 m from retired engineer in AP

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad

The Anti-Corruption Bureau on Saturday seized more than Rs 10 million from the bank lockers of a retired chief engineer of the Andhra Pradesh Housing Board in the city.

The official is presently in the United States of America.

The ACB officials formed five teams and opened lockers in branches of three banks.

The bureau had obtained permission for the raid from the principal special judge for ACB cases and conducted a raid on the house of former chief engineer Surendra Bahadur Srivastava at Mallepally two days before.

They found keys of 13 lockers from the house. Some lockers were in the names of family members and others were in benami names.

The ACB teams opened the lockers in the presence of bank officials and relatives of the retired chief engineer, as he is in the US.

The ACB found the cash in the 13 lockers. They also found two gold biscuits with Swiss markings and two Australian gold coins, weighing 23 sovereigns. The lockers were opened in four branches of the AP State Co-operative Bank and a branch each of the State bank of India and Bank of India.

The money was found in denominations of Rs 50 and Rs 100.

The cash was apparently accumulated in the lockers from 1995. In some cases, rubber strings on the note bundles gave way.

The ACB said Surendra Bahadur Srivastava was one of seven accused in a scandal relating to purchase of building materials for housing board colonies in various parts of the state in 1998.

The ACB also raided the house of Jagan Mohan Reddy, chief engineer of housing board, and recovered keys for his lockers, which will be opened on Monday.

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