Four officials held for fund swindle in T sheep sop

Hyderabad: The Anti Corruption Bureau on Thursday arrested four govt officials for allegedly siphoning off funds to the tune of 2.10 crore in sheep distribution scheme.Dharmapuri Ravi, assistant director of area veterinary hospital, Kamareddy, M Aditya Kesava Sai, district veterinary and animal husbandry officer, Medchal, groundwater officer P Raghupathi Reddy and adult education deputy director Sangu Ganesh were among those arrested. Two other accused officials in the case are yet to be arrested.It all started when a few sheep sellers from Andhra Pradesh approached Gachibowli police in Jan, complaining that the money which was supposed to be credited into their accounts was illegally diverted by the govt officials into the bank accounts of benamis. “The officials created fake benami accounts and misappropriated 2.10 crore of govt money. The four accused caused revenue loss to the govt exchequer,” an ACB official said. “The accused officials went to Prakasam district and bought sheep. But in govt records, they entered the benamis account numbers instead of the original sellers. After the money was credited into bank accounts, it was withdrawn by the accused officials,” cops said. They bought 132 units of sheep and each unit had 20 sheep.