ACB raids on Endowment Officer; 100 Cr seized; who is he?

Vijayawada, Dec 12: The AP Anti-Corruption Bureau officials have unearthed assets with a market value of Rs 100 crore following raids on Seelam Surya Chandrasekhara Azad, regional joint commissioner, endowments department, working in Rajahmundry.

The raids were conducted at 18 places, including the officer’s houses and those of his wife, brother and others at Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Anantapur, Nuziveedu and other places. A press release by the ACB stated that Azad had 32 acres of land in Ubicherla in Anantapur district which was in the name of three of his domestics - A. Lakshman Rao, A. Rangamma and S. Satyavati.

He had set up a solar plant on this land in which he invested Rs 18 crore. The ACB recovered documents showing that assets of Rs 3 crore had been mortgaged with Canara Bank.

The ACB said he had purchased the land in 2013 for Rs 17.16 lakh. Azad owned a 2,128-sq. ft building on a 404-sq. yard plot of land at Gunadala in Vijayawada and was constructing a ground plus two-floor house on 600 sq. yards at Gollapudi.

In Hyderabad, he owned a 665 sq. ft flat on the terrace of Nutan’s Ramya Apartments in Gaddiannaram and a 1,735-sq. ft flat in Dilsukhnagar.

His other properties included a 200.44-sq. yard plot at Penamaluru and 30 cents of agricultural land in Godavarru, both in Kankipadu.

Raided AP babu had worked in popular temples
The building at Gollapudi and agricultural land in Godavarru were in Azad's name, the ACB said. All the other properties are either in his wife's name or that of his brother Vivekananda. The ACB also seized gold and silver articles worth Rs 12 lakh.

Azad joined the government service in 2000 as an assistant commissioner, endowments. He worked as the executive officer at prominent temples at Srikalahasti, Srisailam, Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy temple, Vemulawada temple in Karimnagar and at the Tirupatamma temple in Penuganchiprolu, Krishna district.

Sources said that the ACB was acting on a tip-off from his colleagues in the endowments department.