Officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau today conducted raids at the offices of the transport department across the State.
The ACB raided the offices of the department after 12 years.
The raids were conducted in the wake of a series of complaints to the Chief Minister against the department. It has been alleged that bribes were being taken from thousands of vehicles at inter-state check posts on a daily basis by corrupt officials of the department. RTA brokers also allegedly continue to dominate the RTA offices. After Ponnam Prabhakar took over as the transport minister, there have been many transfers of RTA officials.
The ACB carried out some of the raids through decoy operations at the RTA offices and check posts. ACB officials queued up for driving licenses at the RTA offices. They also disguised themselves as lorry drivers and went for inspections at the check-posts. Simultaneous inspections were carried out at the check-posts within the jurisdiction of the combined ten districts.
Searches were also carried out at the Ranga Reddy and Manikonda RTA offices with 25 officials. A raid was also conducted at the Bandlaguda RTA office under the leadership of ACB DSP Sridhar. Several documents were seized by the authorities during the raids.
The ACB officials took into custody three persons including a junior assistant. Money along with several files was found in their possession.
Searches are underway in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Karimnagar districts as well as in many other districts.