Telangana Vigilance Commission approves proposal to freeze assets of engineers accused in Kaleshwaram project

The Telangana Vigilance Commission has approved the Irrigation Department’s proposal to attach the assets of senior engineers accused of accumulating disproportionate wealth while working on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP).

The decision follows raids carried out earlier this year by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on the residences of several engineers, including Executive Engineer Noone Sridhar, Engineer-in-Chief (ENC) Bhukya Hariram, and former ENC (General) Muralidhar. The searches reportedly unearthed assets worth several crores, far exceeding their known sources of income.

According to official sources, Sridhar’s assets alone are estimated to be worth around ₹110 crore in the open market. Sridhar, who joined the Irrigation Department as an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) and was serving as an Executive Engineer at the time of his arrest in June, had been associated with the Kaleshwaram project for several years. Investigators found multiple properties registered in the names of his wife, children, and alleged benami holders.

The ACB is also probing assets worth ₹14 crore linked to Sridhar and ₹11.46 crore belonging to ENC Bhukya Hariram. Following the raids, the Irrigation Department submitted a detailed list of properties to the Vigilance Commission, recommending that they be frozen.

The Commission has now agreed to the proposal, directing that all identified properties be attached. Until the pending corruption cases are resolved, no sale or transfer of these assets will be legally valid.

The move is a part of the ongoing probe into alleged irregularities and corruption in the execution of the multi crore Kaleshwaram project.