Tender process ignored in granting liquor shops
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In view of the arrests made by the ACB in the liquor scam, ACB DG Boobathi Babu said, “Nageshwar Rao finalised the tender for a wine shop in favour of one Inturi Shekar Rao and his name was declared as the successful bidder. For other wine shops M.A. Azeem, joint collector finalised and signed in the confirmation register.”
Regarding another shop, one Ch. Srinivasa Rao had lodged a complaint before the collector against Ven-kata Ramana and P. Anjaiah. “The Khammam RDO, in his report, had established several manipulations and fabrications of the records and inclusion of a person other than the successful bidder in respect of 16 wine shops and recommended criminal action. Nageshwar Rao, the then collector, having got the report from the RDO kept quiet, without taking any action to cancel all the licences,” said Mr Boobathi Babu.
The ACB had earlier arrested four officials of Khammam who had played an active role in handing over control of the 16 shops to the syndicate led by syndicate leader Venkata Ramana. On March 16 nine other officials including two top excise superintendents were also arrested.
Modus operandi
It all started on May 27, 2010 when a notification was issued for sealed tenders for the auction of liquor shop licences. The tenders were finalised on June 7, 2010 in Khammam town. Though Mr J. Ramesh had bid the highest amount at Rs 2.25 crore, the authorities declared the second highest bidder Mr Srinivas Rao who quoted Rs 1.89 crore as the winner of Shop No. 8 in the presence of then Khammam joint collector, deputy commissioner of excise and excise superintendent. The highest bidder was absent during the finalisation of tenders.
Subsequently, one Mr P. Anjaiah tried to evict Mr Srinivasa Rao from Shop No. 8 saying that he was the original licence holder of the shop. “Ironically the aggressor managed to get all support from the officials who were supposed to enforce the rule of law,” said Mr Boobathi Babu.
The ACB also found that there is no provision for making tender application by tenderers as per the Excise Act. However, the name of P. Anjaiah was added subsequently in the tender application which is a fabricated document. In the tender register for Shop No. 8 only the name of Mr Srinivasa Rao was found along with his signature and there is no mention of Mr Anjaiah. His name was added later. The same modus operandi was used in 15 other shops.
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