The Hindu : A persistent offender

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 13, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

A persistent offender

By Marri Ramu

HYDERABAD Aug. 12. There is more to his criminal track record than what meets the eye. Inquiries revealed that the kingpin behind the recent Rs. 1.05-crore bank loan scam, Vijaya Raju, was involved in several other white collar offences as well.

An Indian Information Service officer, Raju joined Doordarshan as Assistant News Editor in 1990 and had allegedly invited the wrath of the then DD News Editor for his corrupt practice of collecting money from politicians to air news related to them.

Having learnt about his nefarious activities, Hyderabad Doordarshan authorities got him transferred. The accused had then reportedly sought the help of a self-styled journalist, Y. Jaganmohan Rao, to get back into the Doordarshan fold. However, this plan did not fructify.

Later, Raju joined as a Field Publicity Officer for the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) here. In 1994, the accused officer had misappropriated about Rs. 60,000 Provident Fund money of an attender working in his office.

Following a complaint lodged by the attender, Raju was put behind the bars. It is learnt that friends and well-wishers of the accused raised some money and paid back to the attender. The fact that Raju was in police custody for nearly 24 hours was kept a closely guarded secret.

Later, Raju was arrested by the Abids police for allegedly cheating the Masab Tank branch of Canara bank. In 1996, he used his connections with the leader of a political party and managed to join as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of the then Speaker of the State Assembly.

Here too, he continued to misuse his position. It was charged that he had stolen an electronic typewriter from the office. Raju misused the subscriber trunk dial (STD) telephone facility of the office resulting in a whopping bill of Rs. 2 lakhs as he used to lend the phone to outsiders and charge them for the calls.

Having learnt about these deeds, the then Speaker sent him back to the parent department. However, Raju again managed to get appointed in the office of the then Higher Education Minister for a brief while.

Later, allegations of misuse of funds were made against him when he returned to the DAVP. A three-member committee, headed by an officer of the rank of the Joint Director of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, was constituted to inquire into the charges and he was suspended following submission of an adverse report by the committee. However, he was reinstated after sometime.

Continuing his misdeeds, Raju hatched a plan along with Jaganmohan to dupe the banks with fake salary slips. Claiming himself as the salary disbursing officer of the DAVP Hyderabad office, he prepared fake salary and other documents and availed loans to the tune of Rs. 1.05 crore from 14 banks in the twin cities. Finally, he was arrested on July 27 following a complaint by one of the banks.

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