The Anti Corruption Bureau is faced with the herculean task of filing chargesheets in the liquor scam involving top politicians, excise officials and liquor dons. Many of the accused are out on bail as the chargesheets were not filed within the stipulated period. The probe into the liquor scam slowed down when the ACB got busy with the cash-for-bail scam of former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy.
Considering the number of politicians and their cronies involved in the liquor scam, the ACB has to tread cautiously. The agency also has to analyse huge number of documents collected as part of the investigation from banks, liquor shops and godowns and send them for forensic examination. ACB sources said the records found in the liquor syndicate offices are key evidences, apart from the statements of witnesses. The records have to be sent to the document examination wing of the forensic laboratory where the handwriting of the accused has to be tallied with that of the specimen.
All this is taking time and delaying the filing of the chargesheet. The names of Sattupally MLA Sandra Venkat Veeraiah (TD), Yemmigannur MLA Chenna Keshava Reddy (YSRC), former MLC Puvvada Nageswara Rao (CPI), Mahbubabad MLA M. Kavita (Congress) and TD MLA from Vizag East, V. Ramakrishna Babu, have cropped up in the liquor scam. Investigations revealed that most of the accused liquor shop owners are from below-the-poverty-line category and hold white ration cards and are thought to be benami or proxy owners acting as fronts for politicians and liquor dons.