Hyderabad, Dec 12 (IANS) Telangana’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday began questioning Nikesh Kumar, Assistant Executive Engineer of the Irrigation Department, who was arrested earlier this month in a case of disproportionate assets case.
Day after a court granted the ACB custody of the tainted official for four days, the sleuths of the anti-graft agency took him into custody from Chanchalguda prison.
He was brought to the ACB office in Nampally, where investigating officers were questioning him.
The ACB officials had found assets valued at Rs 17.73 crore owned by Nikesh Kumar and his family members which are disproportionate to his known sources of income. In one bank locker, they found gold jewellery weighing 1.5 kg.
The market value of his assets, including a villa, flat, plots, agriculture land and gold ornaments together is pegged at over Rs 100 crore.
The official, who joined the job a decade ago, was said to be earning at least Rs 2 lakh a day allegedly through corrupt means. The ACB officials were shocked to find the value of the disproportionate assets.
The questioning by the ACB officials is likely to bring out more facts relating to the sensational case. The agency will also try to find out if Nikesh Kumar was acting as a ‘benami’ of any other person.
Nikesh was earlier trapped by the ACB team in May when he demanded and accepted a bribe of Rs 2 lakh along with three other officials working in the irrigation and revenue department.
A major chunk of Nikesh Kumar’s illegal wealth came allegedly through No Objection Certificates (NOCs) he issued for building permissions through the TG-bPASS portal.
This is said to be the second biggest catch by the ACB after the apprehension of the former director of Insurance Medical Services (IMS) Ch Devika Rani in 2019 and HMDA Director (Town Planning) Shiva Balakrishna earlier this year. While disproportionate assets worth Rs 30 crore were seized from Devika, unregistered properties worth Rs 9 crore were seized from Balakrishna. The value of the seized assets of the two tainted officials was only as per the government record. The market value is estimated to be worth hundreds of crores.
–IANS
ms/dpb
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
