Liquor barons in ‘draft fraud’
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In almost a repeat of the Vizianagaram scam, the Anti-Corruption Bureau has registered four more cases of irregularities during auction of liquor in other districts. Like in Vizianagaram, between 15 and 40 per cent liquor shop owners in these four districts were also found to be below the poverty line, holding white ration cards and considered 'benami' owners acting as front of politicians and liquor dons, a top ACB official said.
Opponents of PCC president Botsa Satynarayana have alleged that he was involved in the Vizianag-aram liquor auction scam. ACB DG Boobathi Babu on Wednesday said that fresh cases were registered in West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts. “This is in continuation of similar cases of fraud committed in Vizianagaram district, registered on March 27,” he said.
According to the ACB chief, Krishna district was found to have the highest number of benami liquor licence holders. He said, “Many of these wine shops bear similar trade names, which indicated they are controlled by one (same) group of persons or syndicates. Preliminary financial investigation in the case relating to Vizianagaram district led to a similar inference on the role of syndicates.”
The ACB also found that the liquor syndicates have their own ways to evade income tax. Mr Boobathi Babu said that the Special Investiga-tion Team found liquor shop owners have taken demand drafts of Rs 40,000 to avoid their bank transactions coming under the Income Tax department’s scanner. “Multiple demand drafts were taken and deposited by each liquor shop in a day,” he said, adding that the value of all (these) drafts was uniformly Rs 40,000.
Mr Boobathi Babu said the ACB does not intend to trouble the poor, innocent white ration cardholders, purportedly lured into becoming benami owners. “The ACB urges them to speak the truth and depose evidence and produce the real offenders. We never focused the investigation on a particular district or group of persons,” he said.
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