The Anti-Corruption Bureau Telangana on Wednesday (May 27) conducted surprise inspections at multiple Regional Transport Authority (RTA) offices in Hyderabad and uncovered widespread irregularities involving private agents, driving school operators and bribery-linked processing of driving licences and vehicle registration documents.

The raids were simultaneously carried out at the RTA Medchal, RTA Kondapur and RTA Nagole offices following complaints regarding the functioning of middlemen and alleged corruption in public service delivery.

According to ACB officials, several unauthorised agents were found operating freely inside the RTA premises and allegedly handling official work on behalf of applicants in exchange for money. During the inspection at the Medchal RTA office, officials intercepted a private individual linked to a driving school who was carrying four driving licence applications without the applicants being physically present. On questioning, he admitted that he was facilitating learner licences and driving licence approvals for payments collected from applicants.

At the Kondapur RTA office, investigators found indications that applications were being marked with specific codes and agent references to ensure they were processed smoothly without objections. Officials also discovered that several driving licence and registration certificate cards, which were meant to be dispatched directly to applicants through postal services, were instead lying with private agents.

During the raids, around 150 printed RCs and driving licences were seized from unauthorised intermediaries allegedly operating inside the office premises. Officials said the findings pointed towards systematic misuse of the document handling process.

The ACB also uncovered irregularities at the Nagole RTA office, where driving school representatives and agents were allegedly influencing the driving test process near the test track. Seven driving school owners-cum-agents and eight instructors were found present inside the premises during the inspection.

Officials seized ₹41,130 cash from the individuals present at the Nagole office and began verifying whether the money was linked to illegal facilitation of driving tests and licence approvals.

In another major finding, officials recovered 184 driving licences from the possession of an agent identified as Sudhakar Reddy. According to the ACB, the licences had been collected directly from dispatch staff instead of being sent to applicants through postal delivery as mandated.

Investigators further observed that all 185 driving licence applications verified during the inspection had been approved without a single rejection, raising suspicion about the genuineness of the evaluation process. Officials also suspect that vehicle numbers of driving schools mentioned in applications were being used as coded references connected to bribery arrangements and internal identification of agents.

The ACB stated that the inspections revealed a structured network of private agents and driving school operators allegedly functioning within the RTA system with unofficial access to government procedures and documents.

Officials said a detailed report on the irregularities detected during the raids would be submitted to the government and further action would be initiated against those responsible.