The Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (AP CID) has named Telugu Desam Party national president and former Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu in the alleged Amaravati capital city Inner Ring Road (IRR) alignment violations case, when he is already facing a legal issue and is under 14-day judicial remand in a case related to alleged scam in Skill Development programme.
The prime allegations levelled against Mr. Naidu are that he played a crucial role in appointing a Master Planner of Amaravati on nomination basis when he was Chief Minister between 2014 and 2019, IRR was aligned to permit the appreciation in values of the land banks of Heritage Foods, Lingamaneni and Narayana educational institutions, and Seed Capital area was decided based on the land bank of P. Narayana and others affiliated to TDP, according to the confidential information obtained by The Hindu from the investigation agency — CID.
The CID has named Mr. Naidu as the prime accused in the case, while the others, including P. Narayana, the then Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Lingamaneni Ramesh and Lingamaneni Venkata Surya Rajasekhar of Lingamaneni group of companies, K.P.V. Anjani Kumar of Rama Krishna Housing Ltd., Nara Lokesh, TDP general secretary and son of Mr. Naidu, their family owned company Heritage Foods Pvt Ltd as other accused individuals and institutions in it. A case was registered by the investigation agency as Cr.No.16/2022 U/s 120(B), 409, 420, 34, 35, 37, 166, 167, 217 IPC & Sec. 13(2) r/w 13(1) (c) & (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 of CID Police Station, Mangalagiri.
The CID claimed that Mr. Naidu and Mr. Narayana engaged a foreign Master Planner to prepare a detailed master plan, layouts, infrastructure plans, a cadastral framework for a land pooling scheme at a cost of ₹11.92 crore on a nomination basis by citing flimsy reasons violating the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines.
Mr. Naidu and Mr. Narayana allegedly influenced the process of preparing the Master Plans through the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) functioning under their control, the CID alleged. The then Chief Minister Mr. Naidu was also the ex-officio Chairman of the APCRDA, while Mr. Narayana was vice-chairman of the Authority.
According to the CID, the foreign Master Planner submitted reports of Master Plan for the Capital City, Capital Region and Seed Capital during the year 2015, allegedly to suit the needs of the accused and their associates, as guided by the APCRDA.
Further, the CID maintained that during December 2015, the officials of APCRDA guided the Master Planner to prepare the Revised Capital City Master Plan consisting IRR alignment of Capital City to suit the whims and fancies of their family members and close associates, who were named as accused, for the sake of appreciation of the value of their lands situated at Kantheru and Kaza villages. On December 26, .2015, the plans consisting of the IRR alignment were notified by APCRDA.
As a part of the conspiracy, Mr. Naidu appointed Cherukuri Sreedhar, IAS, who was holding the post of Joint Collector, Guntur District, as Commissioner, APCRDA in violation of the APCRDA Act and controlled the decision-making, the CID alleged.
Further, in January 2015, the APCRDA officials issued Notice Inviting Bids for the preparation of a feasible study and Detailed Project Report of IRR alignment, with a key condition in the notification that the consultant should follow the proposed alignment as per the Draft Master Plan prepared by the foreign Master Planner. Accordingly, STUP Consultants was selected on competitive bidding, and an agreement was made between APCRDA and STUP Consultants.
The APCRDA officials allegedly guided the STUP consultants in violation of the contract agreement, and changed the alignment of IRR with several iterations and framed the IRR alignment adjacent to the lands of the accused persons and their entities. Because of this act, accused persons caused loss to State exchequer and got undue benefit. The Commissioner, APCRDA, approved the alignment option with a length of 97.5 km despite the high-cost implication that the cost of alignment option-2 was of ₹6,260 crore and the cost of alignment option-3 was of ₹5,380 crore. Further, Mr. Naidu and Mr. Narayana ratified the feasible IRR alignment in the 8th Authority Meeting, the CID alleged in its report.
Mr. Naidu appropriated the house of Mr. Lingamaneni Ramesh on free of cost as a quid pro quo and illegal gratification, for causing huge wrongful gains to him, Lingamaneni Rajashekar and their entities, by framing the IRR alignment adjacent to their lands, the CID alleged.
The location of the Seed Capital was finalised to suit the interests of the land bank, held in the names of the benamis of Mr. Narayana, the investigation agency said.
