State Anti-corruption Bureau has unearthed many cases of corruption by the 'Babus' in the state, who have stashed away their ill-gotten money in private firms. According to the ACB sources, as per details found during raids at their residences, many officials have invested in construction, food processing, real estate developers and manufacturing industries.

Recently, it had come to the notice of the ACB that the deputy executive engineer of the Jurala Project, Mr Gopal Reddy, had invested 25 lakh in a construction company. ACB officials say that this is a fast-growing trend. They say that the babus were resorting to this practice instead of investing in houses and plots to avoid getting caught.

The ACB usually zeroes in on corrupt bureaucrats by checking the database of the AP Stamps and Registration department for information on houses, plots and other immovable properties owned by officials and their family members. Information regarding investments in private companies is not registered with them.

The ACB joint director, Mr K. Sampath Kumar, said, "They are making investments in the companies to avoid getting caught. The other aspect is that the growth in the real estate sector has slowed. There is currently a boom in activities like road-laying, like the Hyderabad-Vijayawada multi-lane national highway. We had earlier come across cases where babus had invested in borewell companies. These investments can be written off as expenditures. Sometimes they also pull out their shares." Mr Kumar added that while investing in stocks was an old phenomenon, more and more corrupt officials these days were putting their money in partnerships and private and limited companies.

In another recent case, Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths, who searched the house of assistant engineer of the Agriculture department, Mr V. Prasad, found disproportionate assets worth 1.25 crore. Mr Prasad had invested
1.1 crore in Sri Laxmi Balaji Cashew Processor Industry, located in Visakhapatnam, in the name of his son. Investments worth 20 lakh into another company, Sri Balaji Cashew Industry at Dharmasagaram, Narsipatnam, had been made in the name of his wife. He had also invested another 5 lakh in Balaji Cashew Products Pvt Limited.

Another case to point was that of special officer of the Urban Land Ceiling department, Mr D. Venkateshwar Rao. He had invested 48.5 lakh in real estate ventures at Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam. The ACB also found that a deputy executive engineer, Mr K. Janardhan Reddy had invested 17 lakh in various companies and the ADE of APCPDCL, Mr S. Chittaranjan, had invested 25 lakh in Gangotri Developers.