OSD of Minister arrested in sheep distribution scam

The duo reportedly violated official instructions and involved private persons in the procurement of sheep.

Hyderabad: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials on Friday arrested two more officials in connection with the Criminal Misappropriation Case (RCO) related to sheep distribution scheme in Animal Husbandry department of Telangana.

The arrested persons are Sabavath Ramchander, CEO of Telangana Livestock Development Agency, (former Managing Director, Telangana State Sheep and Goat Development Cooperative Federation Ltd) and Gundamaraju Kalyan Kumar, former OSD for Talasani Srinivas Yadav, the then Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries.

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The ACB officials alleged that the suspects, who colluded and conspired with private persons, resorted to gross illegal acts and violations. “The arrested suspects along with private persons illegally obtained undue advantage and caused wrongful loss to the government exchequer and thus misappropriated government funds worth Rs.2.1 crore,” officials said.

The duo reportedly violated official instructions and involved private persons in the procurement of sheep. They are also believed to have allowed private individual to fill forms, a task that should have mandatorily been done by government officials.

Later, they allegedly uploaded online the details of non-existent sellers on the department website and after that, enabled the disbursement of money to the non-existent sellers instead of genuine sellers. The duo was produced before the Special Judge for ACB cases at Hyderabad for judicial remand.

So far, the ACB had arrested eight government officers for their involvement in the case.