Hyderabad: The Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raided the office of the Hyderabad Metro Development Authority (HMDA) in Amirpet's Swarna Jayanti complex in connection with the alleged irregularities involving former Director HMDA and Secretary Telangana State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Shiva Balakrishna, days after grilling him in the case, sources said.
For four days, ACB officials have been laying siege to the HMDA office in Amirpet's Swarna Jayanti complex and are investigating the alleged irregularities. The raids have been mainly focused on Shamshabad, Ghatkesar, and Shankarpally zones. Sources said that the ACB is scrutinizing 100 files crucial to the applications granted permissions while Sivabalakrishna was the HMDA Director.
The ACB officials, who raided the HMDA offices late night on Wednesday night, continued the investigation on the seventh floor of HMDA till Thursday night. The ACB is probing the projects approved by Balakrishna especially the real estate projects approved by the HMDA in 2023. Huge layouts were built and sold in posh areas like Kokapet and Budvel.
Later, HMDA permitted the construction of buildings and commercial complexes here. From 2021, HMDA has issued permissions for buildings of 48 to 59 floors in the Puppalaguda, Serilingampally, and Kokapet areas. In the years 2022 and 2023, private layouts have been allowed in seven districts as per officials. The ACB is probing whether the permits for layouts in buffer zones have been granted as per the rules.
It is learnt that the Telangana ACB is likely to conduct inspections for a few more days in the HMDA offices. The raids by the ACB come days after Balakrishna was grilled in the case for allegedly amassing property by granting permission to realtors in the buffer zone of Musi river in violation of rules.
