VIJAYAWADA: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths conducted simultaneous raids on properties belonging to a tourism official in Vijayawada on Wednesday.The accused officer was identified as Rachuri Siva Rao (55), an estate officer working at the APTDC managing director’s office in Auto Nagar area.According to the ACB officials, they began the raids at around 6am at Siva Rao’s residence and five other places belonging to his family and houses of his close associates.Officials unearthed disproportionate assets said to be valued at almost Rs 80 crore (market value) during the raids.Most of the assets were registered in the name of his mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Officials explained that assets were also held through other close relatives who acted as Siva Rao’s benamis.With 14 plots, two flats, two houses and an agriculture land – all located in the prime Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) limits in Vijayawada, sources suggest that the property value in these regions has sky-rocketed.Explaining the background of the official in question, officials explained that Siva Rao, who hailed from Kankipadu village in Krishna district, began his government service in 1987 as a typist in the revenue department.Subsequently, he got promoted as deputy tahsildar and worked in Penamaluru area in Krishna district from 2003 to 2006 and later as deputy tahsildar (urban land ceiling) from 2006 to 2008. After receiving promotion as tahsildar, Siva Rao worked in Mopidevi, Kankipadu and Gannavaram mandals from 2009 to 2012.Later, Rao worked as tahsildar in Vijayawada Urban mandal of Krishna district from 2012 to 2018 before being transferred to the tourism department on deputation on April 2018. Siva Rao has been placed under arrest and a case under Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against him. He will be produced before the Vijayawada ACB court for judicial remand.ACB sources revealed that Siva Rao held a nexus with land grabbers in the city and exploited his position of tahsildar for revenue gains. Back in 2018, Siva Rao was embroiled in a land grabbing controversy and ACB officials confirm that he was involved in changing the enjoyer’s name of a land situated in Adangal in the revenue records. In January last year, Kesireddy Suryanarayana lodged a complaint against TDP MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao’s wife Sujatha and few others for grabbing his grandfather’s land which was assigned to him in 1986 recognising his efforts as a freedom fighter. ACB officials said that Siva Rao changed the land name to Abdul Masthan’s name under his request in 2007.

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