Civil supplies scam : ACB arrests Sullurpet RDO in a multi-crore scam

Tirupati: Sullurpet revenue divisional officer (RDO) K M Rosemond has been arrested by the ACB sleuths in connection with a multi-crore scam in paddy procurement from farmers by AP Civil Supplies Corporation Limited. She was allegedly involved in the scam when she was working as district manager of civil supplies in Nellore district. While the probe was on into the scam, the ACB sleuths arrested the RDO on Wednesday night and sent for remand.

ACB DSP Mohan Rao revealed that RDO Rosemond was arrested after getting permission from the chief secretary on charges of misappropriation of Rs 9 crore during her tenure as MD in Civil Supplies Corporation of Nellore district. She was remanded till January 4 by the ACB Court in Nellore. He said that 15 persons have been arrested in the case so far while the investigation is going on.

After the arrests of several accused were made earlier, RDO's name cropped up during the interrogation relating to the misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 29.18 crore in the corporation. The whole scam was brought to light during an internal audit for 2021-22 fiscal. It was learnt that the auditors found that the money was misused during 2020-21 and up to September 2022 in the current fiscal.

During the investigation, it was revealed that a data entry operator S Siva Kumar colluded with a transport contractor Ch Dayakar and made a fraud of Rs 29.78 crore on the corporation. He could login with the ID and password of the district manager P Padma by gaining her confidence and diverted the amounts which were due to farmers for transporting paddy to rice mills and money payable to hamalis towards labour charges.

Of the total Rs 29.78 crore swindled, Siva transferred Rs 6.89 crore to Dayakar and the remaining amount to himself through various methods, including net banking and cheques and distributed some of it to others involved in the scam.

In connection with the case, Nellore district collector K V N Chakradhar Babu had already placed under suspension five civil supplies staff including Padma, Ch Jayashankar, then assistant manager – accounts, N Radhamma and then assistant manager M V V V Sharma and cashier T Arun Kumar.