4 AP officers get top honour

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer, Mr S. Ravindranath, who probed the Satyam fraud case and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officer, Mr G. Raja Sekhar Reddy, who unearthed narcotics and hawala rackets were awarded the Presidential award for distinguished record of service.

They will be given the award on Republic Day.

Mr Ravindranath played a key role in the attachment of properties of the Satyam scam accused including Mr B. Ramalinga Raju.

For the past year, Mr Ravindranath has been working for the ED after he was shifted from the DRI.

Mr G. Raja Sekhar Reddy, had helped to uncover major drug cases in 2002 and 2004 and aided illegal gold seizures while working at the DRI.

As the intelligence officer of the DRI, he helped reveal a Rs 100-crore hawala racket and he also cracked

a commercial imports fraud from China.

The latter led to the recovery of Rs 4 crore for the government.

In addition, Mr Reddy also exposed several fake drug cases.

Other officials who were given the President award include Mr M.V.S. Prasada, the superintendent of Central Excise at Guntur, and Mr K. Jagan Mohan, the superintendent of Central Excise at Visakhapatnam.