Visakhapatnam: The sleuths of the ACB Central Investigation Unit, Vijayawada conducted simultaneous searches on the properties of suspended Vizianagaram survey inspector Gedela Lakshmi Ganeswar Rao and his relatives, and unearthed huge properties disproportionate to his known source of income on Saturday.

Simultaneous searches began at 6.30 am in 17 places in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram, East Godavari, West Godavari districts and in Hyderabad and are still continuing.

Ganeswar Rao (56) who is working as a survey inspector at the office of assistant director, Land and Survey, Vizianagaram, was suspended on the charges of tampering of revenue records and issuing pattadar passbooks in the name of benamis for pecuniary gains.

Searches were also conducted at his house at Suvarna Residency on Rama Talkies Road in Visakhapatnam.

The officials unearthed documents pertaining to five house plots, 19 flats and 30.3 acres of agricultural land registered in the names of Rao, his wife, two sons and a benami. Three cars, a bank balance of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 50,000 in cash and many gold and silver articles and foreign currency notes have been seized so far.

In 2009, a disproportionate asset case was registered against Rao by the ACB, Vijayawada when he was working as the Machilipatnam survey inspector in Krishna district and huge properties were unearthed from him.

A charge-sheet was also filed in the Special Court for SPE & ACB Cases in Vijayawada. The case is under trial at present.

Recently, a case was registered against Rao by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was formed by the Andhra Pradesh government to probe into the land scam allegations reported from Visakhapatnam. Rao was arrested on the charges of tampering with revenue records by creating forged documents and issuing pattadar passbooks in the name of 25 benamis. At present, he is under suspension.