CM Kiran Kumar Reddy is said to be killing two birds one shot in the ongoing ACB raids into excise kickbacks.
On the one hand, most of the ruling party leaders including most of the Ministers in the government are in a state of shock over the exposure about their involvement in the excise corruption. On the other hand, Kiran will enhance his already projected image of being a clean CM who is determined to root out corruption.
It is widely believed that only the CM has been in the know of the ongoing raids and that orders came from the top.
PCC chief and Minister Bocha Satyanarayana and several others are involved in excise business through their families. This has given fodder to the opposition parties including TDP to target Bocha and other Minsters, who are on the defensive now.
An interesting aspect of the ongoing ACB raids is that strictly speaking the officers can only search and investigate government employees in the Excise Department. ACB, however, is conducting raids on the offices of liquor syndicates,which have been dealing with the distribution of mamools to politicians, officials and media persons in their respective areas.
ACB will claim that the money was being paid to government servants, and hence it was authorized to conduct raids. In any case, Kiran is using his anti-corruption crusade both to take on his opponents within the party as well as to acquire the image of Mr Clean.
