Big fish used wine & women to win contracts
HYDERABAD: The case of big fish Y Suryananarayana is getting murkier with investigators revealing that the executive engineer used the 'wine
-women-wealth' (WWW) mantra as bait to influence decision-makers in government to bag contracts.
"Our preliminary investigations show that the WWW formula worked almost and always for him," an official claimed. "Of course, he did not have to use all the three in each case. He had a knack for identifying what a person who had to do him a favour had a weakness for," the official added.
"He would get women from Vijayawada, East Godavari, West Godavari, Visakhapatnam and send them to his contacts in the government comprising officials and even politicians. The women would just have to go and introduce themselves as Suryanarayana's assistants," an ACB official said. But Suryanarayana who was produced in court in Vijaywada on Saturday said that he was innocent and that he did not know any senior official or minister.
With more information about Suryanarayana's activities coming to light, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is setting up a special team with senior officials to investigate his deals. "His links with senior bureaucrats and ministers is being probed. Substantial evidence is being gathered," an ACB official said. Suryanarayana got a large chunk of civil construction works from different government departments. He bagged all the contracts on behalf of the fisheries department, where he was employed. But the payments were always in his name and he encashed the cheques by opening separate accounts in commercial banks.
The ACB, which began searches on December 12 on his properties, is still continuing them in his native place of Kakinada. Investigating teams are also going to all the places that he worked in the past to dig out more information about his activities.
The special team will also investigate if he has any assets in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Suryanarayana, as per initial estimates, owned assets worth Rs 30 crore, but now ACB sleuths feel that the amount could be much larger. Surayanarayana also could 'smell' contracts in various government departments, thanks to the network of agents that he put in place. Some of these agents were contractors themselves whose job was to identify potential projects.
"However, they did not vie for the contracts because they were merely agents. They would inform Suryanarayana about them who in turn would use the most appropriate methods to bag them," ACB officials said. Once Suryananarayana managed the contracts, the agents would also be rewarded with some works that would fetch them handsome earnings.
"I am being implicated. I own only one house in Hyderabad. All the other properties were gifted to my wife by her parents. They are rich," Suryanarayana said on Saturday.
An executive engineer, now suspended, has been remanded in judicial custody till December 26. His bail plea would come up for hearing on Monday.