Tightening the noose on liquor syndicates, the AP High Court on Monday directed the ACB to dig out benamis in the liquor trade. It also directed the state to consider transferring Mr K. Srinivasa Reddy back to the ACB as chief of its Special Investigating Team and to report back to the court on April 27.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar was dealing with a batch of petitions urging the court to monitor the on-going probe into the liquor syndicates and to order a CBI probe into the liquor scam. The bench made it clear that no officer of the ACB, who is associated with the investigation into the liquor scam, shoul be transferred without permission from the court. The court directed the state government to extend resources to, and augment, the ACB as required.
After perusing the status report of the probe by the ACB, the bench said that it had noticed a report on the manipulation of records pertaining to auction proceedings, and directed the ACB to extend the probe to identify the benamidars (the real beneficiaries who hide behind others) in the trade. Expressing dissatisfaction with the state government for granting licences to persons who are below the poverty line, the court directed the ACB to share the fina-ncial details of the liquor shop owners with the Income Tax department.