Municipal officer held for graft owns assets worth Rs 2.93 cr

A Deputy Director in Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC), who was arrested for allegedly offering bribe to a Sena corporator in exchange for not probing complaints of graft against him, has amassed assets worth over Rs 2.93 crore, ACB officials said.
Y S Reddy (48), Deputy Director in the Town Planning Department of VVMC, was arrested on April 28. He was in police custody since then and was granted bail last evening by a court here.
Thane District Judge VV Bambarde let off Reddy on a bail bond of Rs 15,000 after his custody ended.
Sanjay Mohite, DySP of Thane ACB unit, said after Reddy's arrest, ACB sleuths conducted searches at his residences in Vasai and Hyderabad and unearthed assets worth Rs 2,93,94,775 (owned by him and his family members) disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Reddy owns one flat each in Vasai and suburban Borivali worth Rs 53.63 lakh. The sleuths also detected assets worth Rs 1.46 crore in Hyderabad which included documents pertaining to ownership of 11 flats (in two separate buildings under his wife's name), 23 acres of land, gold jewellery, cars and Rs 92.04 lakh in cash, the court was told.
His bank account lockers in Vasai also yielded cash and ornaments with a total worth of about Rs 93 lakhs, the ACB said, adding, there were several complaints of alleged irregularities against the official made by the corporator to police, the civic body and courts which prompted them to take action.

Advocate Gajanan B Chavan, counsel for Reddy told PTI that the court has ordered the accused official to be present every alternate day at the office of the ACB, which is now looking to initiate probe under the DA case.

Reddy wanted the corporator to withdraw the complaints against him for which he allegedly offered a bribe of Rs one crore to him. The aggrieved corporator then lodged a complaint with the Thane unit of ACB.
Subsequently, the ACB laid a trap and caught the accused at a restaurant on Ghodbunder road in Thane on the night of April 28 when he was allegedly offering the first instalment of Rs 25 lakh to the corporator.

Reddy had earlier worked with the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) before joining the VVMC.
Offences under relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act were registered against the accused.