Hyderabad, Jan 6 (IANS) Amid high drama, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao returned from the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) office without appearing before investigating officials in the Formula E race case after his lawyer was not allowed to be present during the interrogation.
The former minister, accompanied by his lawyer, reached the ACB headquarters in Banjara Hills but the police stopped his car saying there was no permission for the lawyer’s presence with KTR who insisted that he has a right to bring his lawyer with him.
He spoke to police officials while sitting in the car. When his lawyer was not permitted, the BRS leader handed over a written statement to the ACB officials and left from there.
The BRS working president later reached party headquarters, the Telangana Bhavan, and said he would decide his future course of action after the Telangana High Court will pronounce its orders on his quash petition.
Earlier talking to media persons outside the ACB office, he said he wanted the presence of his lawyer as he suspected a conspiracy by the government to frame him. He said that police after calling BRS leader Patnam Narender Reddy for questioning in Lagacherla incident had made a false claim that he gave a confession statement in which he named KTR.
KTR also alleged that the Revanth Reddy government had hatched a conspiracy to raid his house after calling him for questioning at the ACB office. He said he suspected that the government may implicate him and malign him through the raid.
The ACB last month booked a case against KTR, former Special Chief Secretary to the Government, Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department Arvind Kumar, and former Chief Engineer of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) B.L.N. Reddy for alleged Rs 54.88 crore irregularities in Formula-E deal.
The FIR was registered on a complaint by Principal Secretary to the Government, MA&UD department M. Dana Kishore, who stated that foreign remittances were made without prior approvals of the relevant regulatory authorities, which resulted in an additional tax burden to HMDA to the tune of Rs.8.06 crore.
The complainant also alleged that the payment was made while the Model Code of Conduct was in effect for the elections to the State Legislative Assembly without any prior approval of the Election Commission of India.
The FIR was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
KTR, who was Municipal Administration Minister during the previous BRS regime, has also been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 7 in connection with the Formula E case over alleged money laundering charges.
The ED has also asked Arvind Kumar and BLN Reddy to appear before the agency on January 8 and 9 respectively.
Denying the allegations of corruption, KTR has filed a quash petition in the Telangana High Court which on December 31 reserved its orders on the quash petition and directed the ACB not to arrest him till the orders are pronounced.
–IANS
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