Official owning 29 houses detained

INTRO

A former housing official in central China's province of Henan is being detained by police over corruption...

After a blogger exposed his family owns a combined 29 houses...defying the government's own strict curbs on buying a home...

It's the latest in a slew of scandals exposed by China's increasingly vocal online population. Here's how:

Zhai Zhenfeng was the former director of the housing administration bureau in Erqi district of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan.

But on December 26th, an online whistle-blower accused Zhai of engaging in practices for personal gain.

On his microblog, he said Zhai was buying up affordable houses intended for the province's poorest families, and selling them at a profit.

He also claimed the official acquired properties for his son and daughter when he was the housing head, revealing his daughter owns 11 affordable houses and holds two ID cards.

SOUNDBITE: WHISTLE-BLOWE

"I have detailed information, including Zhai Zhenfeng's houses and his daughter's. His daughter also has houses in Zhoukou City, but I didn't mention it on my microblog."

Later, the local public security department found that both Zhai and his immediate family including his wife, son and daughter have two ID cards each.

Now, their illegal identities in Xiangcheng City, Henan Province, have been nullified.

Last Friday the procuratorate of Zhengzhou City decided to investigate Zhai's case.

And a preliminary probe by the district government confirmed Zhai's family owns all 29 houses.... But says none were strictly 'affordable':

In September 2011, Zhai was removed from his post by the local discipline watchdog for a set of slew offences, including seeking profits for his family.

The procuratorate of Zhengzhou said, based on the previous findings of misconduct, Zhai violated the law and the case should be investigated.

Zhai's case resembles that of Cai Bin, an urban management official in southern Guangdong Province, dismissed from his post in October after bloggers revealed he owned 22 houses.

Zhai and Cai are among a number of Chinese officials who have been targeted by the country's netizens and later investigated by disciplinary watchdogs.

Other officials who came under scrutiny of China's anonymous online population include one who was found having at least 11 expensive wristwatches and another whose sex video leaked online.

Authorities are present on Weibo - the country's biggest microblog - and read what netizens have to say, even if they later censor it.

And so increasingly, its China's faceless detectives who expose official misconduct - and corruption.