It has come to light that the family of former home secretary B.P. Acharya, the prime accused in the Emaar scam, also owned the second floor in Surana House in Khairatabad.
Documents in the possession of this newspaper revealed that Mr Acha-rya’s son Nikhil Acharya was gifted the second floor, measuring 4,808 sft, by his grandmother Manjeet Rakkar.
This newspaper reported about Mr Acha-rya’s family acquiring the third floor in Surana House at half the price.
Mrs Rakkar paid Rs 45 lakh and got the property registered in her name on June 30, 2004. Within two years she purchased the third floor, again paying Rs 45 lakh and she gifted both the floors to Mr Nikhil Acharya.
Neither Mr Acharya nor his wife Ranjeev R. Acharya, who is also an IAS officer, mentioned the two floors, (present market value of which is more than Rs 1.5 crore), in their annual property returns.
The ministry of personnel website, which lists the property returns of IAS officers, shows that Mr Acharya declared as his lone asset a house in Marredpally. His wife declared two more assets — a 2.5-acre agricultural land and 0.25 acres in Punjab.
Asked about the omission of the Khair-atabad property from the list, a senior official said several officials do not disclose the properties registered in their children’s name if they are majors.
Recently, the government took a stand in the case involving DGP V. Dinesh Reddy and another cop Umesh Kumar, that the property acquired by the kin of the officers through their own income need not be disclosed. The HC, however, turned down this argument and said all assets should be declared.