Dist judge booked on graft charges in Telangana; Rs 3 cr worth

Assets worth Rs 3 crore were unearthed Wednesday during raids against an additional district judge in Telangana, booked on charges of amassing disproportionate wealth, the state Anti-Corruption Bureau said.

Simultaneous searches were carried out in several places in Telangana and in Maharashtra, a day after the bureau registered a case against XIV Additional District Judge Vaidya Vara Prasad of Ranga Reddy district court based on a direction from the high court here, an ACB release said.

During the searches at the residence of the judge and also at the houses of his relatives and associates, several documents related to assets, with a market value of about Rs 3 crore, huge expenditure and bank deposits were earthed, ACB officials said.

The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had received a complaint petition against the judge that he allegedly amassed huge assets and after due preliminary verification ordered the ACB to proceed against him.

Accordingly, a case under the relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the judge for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets to the known sources of income.

As part of the investigation, ACB officials are conducting searches at the residence of the Judge and also at the houses of his relatives and associates at four other places in Hyderabad, three places in Siricilla district of Telangana and two in Maharashtra, the release said.

ACB officials said the raids also showed that the judge along with his family members had made several foreign tours, incurring huge expenditure.

So far, during the searches documents related to three flats, bank balances and fixed deposits in various banks (worth Rs 38.16 lakh), two cars, household articles, and a two-wheeler had been unearthed, they said.

The document value of the assets was approximately Rs 1.5 crore and the market value around Rs 3 crore, they said adding the searches were continuing.