ACB registers misconduct case against HMDA former director

Hyderabad: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths registered a criminal misconduct case against Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) former director Shiva Balakrishna for allegedly manipulating a road master plan in Gachibowli to benefit private parties and causing loss to an individual landowner.The FIR, booked under Section 7(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Shiva Balakrishna and other officials, detailed a two-year chain of events that began in Sept 2022, when the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department issued GO Ms 170, realigning a proposed 100-ft road in Telecom Nagar, Gachibowli.
In her complaint to the ACB director general on Feb 2, 2024, G Neelima, whose 70-ft wide plot in Survey No. 337 was slated for acquisition under the order, alleged the realignment was engineered "at the request of some private parties" who owned land behind her property.Neelima challenged the decision before the Telangana high court through a writ petition, which suspended the GO on Dec 21, 2022. Neelima also alleged that the owners of plots on either side of her property obtained building permissions and that construction neared completion, but her application for building permission to HMDA remained pending since Jan 21, 2023.Based on Neelima's complaint, the ACB DG ordered an enquiry. DSP D Kamalakar Reddy's enquiry concluded that "violations and suspicion" surrounded the issuance of GO Ms 170.Citing the findings, the ACB DG wrote to the state govt on Aug 28, 2024, seeking mandatory sanction to register a case and investigate the matter. ACB received orders from the state govt granting permission to register a criminal misconduct case against Shiva Balakrishna and others on Jan 7. Subsequently, ACB joint director S Venkata Rao issued proceedings on Feb 5, and the FIR was registered two days later.ACB investigators will now probe whether Balakrishna and others abused their official positions to alter the road alignment and delay Neelima's building permit. Shiva Balakrishna was earlier arrested by ACB in a Disproportionate Assets case in Jan 2024.