Daijiworld Media Network - Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Nov 4: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted searches at the premises of IPS officer P Sitarama Anjaneyulu and several others as part of a money laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in the evaluation of answer scripts of the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC), officials said.

The central agency searched seven premises in Hyderabad and Secunderabad in Telangana and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.

The case has been registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and relates to alleged irregularities in the manual evaluation of answer scripts for the APPSC Group-I Main Examination. An amount of Rs 1.14 crore was reportedly paid to a private company in connection with the evaluation process.

Anjaneyulu was serving as the APPSC secretary at the time, while Camsign Media was awarded the contract for manual evaluation, according to the ED.

Apart from the premises of the 1992-batch IPS officer, searches were conducted at the residence of P Madhusudhana Rao, managing director of Camsign Media, and Aavasa Resort Haailand in Chinakakani village of Guntur district, where the answer scripts were stored and the evaluation exercise was conducted.

The agency also searched the premises of TruGrader Services, a division of Stone Media Advisory Services Pvt Ltd, which had earlier conducted digital evaluation for APPSC, and its managing director Akella Peri Srinivasa Rao.

The premises of Mahamkali Raghuram, who was engaged in connection with the evaluation work, were also covered during the searches.