Hyderabad:
After "exposing the nexus" between senior Excise officials and liquor traders insubverting the tender process for allotment of shops, Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) has intensified its searches onoffices of Excise Department across Andhra Pradesh and seized documents, a senior ACB official said.
"We are conducting searches on offices of Excise Department in some districts in connection with irregularitiesin auction of liquor shops. The searches are going on for the past two days which continued today also...and seized somedocuments and we are studying them," the official said.
The ACB last week arrested four officials of Excise Department on charges of processing files and playing anactive role in handing over the control of business of 16 liquor shops to the liquor syndicate led by Nunna VenkataRamana, who is already under judicial custody.
ACB sleuths have been conducting raids in different districts across the state since December last year afterexposing the liquor syndicate-political-officials nexus, with the arrest of Nunna, who, allegedly confessed to havepaid Rs 10 lakh to top politicians.
The agency had registered 24 cases in January and booked one more on March 2 after conducting searches in Hyderabad andKhammam districts in connection with role of excise officials who had allegedly connived with liquor shop licensees.
Meanwhile, a ACB court dismissed the bail plea of Nunna on the ground that further investigations wereon in the liquor scam case.