Liquor scam: Court order to ACB opens a Pandora's box

HYDERABAD: The latest high court order directing the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to carry out fresh probe into the role of public representatives in liquor syndicate has opened a pandora's box.
In the earlier probe report, the ACB special investigation team had given a clean chit to public representatives, stating that they could not collect any incriminating evidence against them. But the same agency had arrested 160 excise, police, revenue and syndicate members based on the same material evidence available.
During the year-long probe into the liquor syndicate scam, ACB sleuths had recorded the statements of several public representatives, including Mahbubabad MLA M Kavita, Sathupally MLA Venkata Veeraiah, Visakhapatnam East MLA Ramakrishna Babu, Yemmiganur MLA Chennakesava Reddy, MLC Puvvada Nageswara Rao, and former minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana based on the confession by arrested syndicate leader Nunna Venkata Ramana.
Prior to recording the statements of the public representatives, ACB sleuths had collected ledgers maintained by the syndicate members and also cell phone call data of both syndicate leaders and the public representatives to find some corroborative evidence to prove that the politicians were receiving bribes from the syndicate.
In addition to Nunna Venkata Ramana's statement, the ACB had found Chennakesava Reddy's name in the syndicate ledger as a beneficiary. However, there was no conclusive evidence like a bank transaction to implicate the public representatives. Citing it as a reason, ACB has not implicated any political leader.
As part of the probe, ACB has found that between 5 to 60 per cent in all districts, liquor shop dealerships were owned by white ration card holders. By suspecting that majority of these white ration card holders were benamis of powerful politicians and public representatives, ACB had issued summons to all the white ration card-holding dealers.
Some dealers turned up before the probe agency and others went underground till the next auctions happened and the licences were given to new dealers. According to ACB officials, none of the white ration card-holders, who had appeared before the concerned investigating officer, had said that he or she was the benami for a politician and hence ACB could not implicate any politician.
The ACB has aggressively carried out arrest of excise and police officials based on the confessions of syndicate leaders, the ledger entries and the cell phone call details. Top officials like retired Khammam district collector N Nageswar Rao, deputy commissioner of excise department A V Narasimha Rao and several excise and police inspectors were also arrested. In some cases, there was solid evidence, while in other cases the arrests were carried out based on confessions, ledger entries and cell phone data.
With the latest HC's order, ACB has to conduct a fresh probe into all allegations made against the public representatives and, file a chargesheet against the politicos if it finds sufficient proof.