Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s supremo and former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s famous sheep distribution scheme is mired in an alleged scam after the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at the residence and office of G Kalyan Kumar, the former Officer on Special Duty to former BRS Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, and other locations, in connection with the alleged sheep scam during the BRS rule.In October 2017, some officials involved in procuring and distributing sheep to eligible beneficiaries involved in sheep rearing found that some of the animals they had distributed were back in the market for sale. Officials found that some of the beneficiaries sold them to sheep rearers in neighbouring states, who were reselling the same sheep back to the Telangana government.AdvertisementOfficials found hundreds of sheep in markets in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, which they had purchased earlier and tagged using markings. The markings were partially removed, but officials could make out that these were the same sheep.The probeTelangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials claim the BRS regime did not adequately investigate this. On December 26, 2023, after the Congress came to power and 19 days after A Revanth Reddy took over as CM, an FIR was registered at Gachibowli police station in Cyberabad in relation to the scheme.The complainant, Sanneboine Yedukondalu, a sheep trader from Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh, claimed that the owner of a Hyderabad-based livestock company and two assistant directors from the state animal husbandry department approached him to supply animals for the Sheep Distribution Scheme.AdvertisementHe stated that between August 13 and 23, 2023, he and 17 other traders delivered 133 units, with each unit comprising 20 sheep and a ram, at Vellela in Prakasam district. They submitted their bank details and Aadhaar cards to the officials, expecting payment. But the money was never credited.When they approached the Joint Director of the Animal Husbandry Department, they were allegedly informed that the money was transferred, but to different bank accounts. Gachibowli Police Station transferred the case to ACB, which registered an FIR based on a CAG audit report of March 2021 that flagged “irregularities” in the implementation of the scheme. The alleged irregularities included non-maintenance of beneficiary details, improper record of invoices, and duplicate tags allotted to sheep units.The ACB also took note of allegations that sheep units were allotted to families that did not exist, or were allotted in the name of a deceased head of a family.Kalyan Kumar and Ramchander Naik, former CEO of Animal Development Corporation and former MD of the State Sheep and Goat Development Association; D Ravi Kumar and M Aditya Keshav Sai, two former assistant directors from the state animal husbandry department; and 11 others have been arrested in this case.ED crackdownThe ACB eventually passed on the investigation information to the ED, saying there was money laundering involved. Based on the CAG report that approximately Rs 253 crore was allegedly misappropriated and the money laundering spanned seven districts of Telangana, the ED determined that the alleged scam involved total money laundering to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore, which prompted its own investigation, resulting in Wednesday’s raids across Hyderabad.In a separate case registered at Nampally Police Station in Hyderabad, former OSD Kalyan and three aides were accused of breaking into the Animal Husbandry Department on December 10, three days after the Congress government came to power, and destroying documents, damaging computer hard drives, and deleting CCTV data.On Wednesday, at least eight locations in the city related to the beneficiaries and alleged middlemen involved in the case were raided by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).most readKCR had launched the sheep distribution scheme in June 2017, aiming to provide for over 7.30 lakh shepherd families, belonging to Yadava and Kurma communities in the state, to revive and encourage caste-based occupation and livelihood. The total budget for this scheme during the BRS regime was approximately Rs 12,000 crore in two phases, and over 1.5 crore sheep were distributed. The animals were procured from AP, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.While the scheme was running successfully, with the beneficiaries able to increase their income, alleged irregularities crept in. As per the ACB, some sheep trading agents and government officials involved in the scheme allegedly contacted the beneficiaries with offers to purchase the sheep. Many beneficiaries who were already in alternative professions and did not know how to tend to their flock sold the sheep to make easy money.The agents took back the sheep to the same markets in the neighbouring states from where the Telangana government had earlier purchased and resold them to the government, often with the knowledge of the officials of the Animal Husbandry Department and the State Sheep and Goat Development Association, it is alleged.