The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday lodged an FIR against Telangana’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and MLA KT Rama Rao (KTR) in connection with alleged irregularities in the Formula-E race in Hyderabad.
He has been named as the key accused and has been booked for allegedly misusing government funds under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC. Besides him, the ACB has also named former Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar and former Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) Chief Engineer BLN Reddy as accused.
The case comes days after Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma permitted KTR’s prosecution in the case.
The ACB has alleged that HMDA paid Rs 45 crore to the foreign company FEO, violating the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India. The payments were reportedly made without obtaining approvals from the state cabinet or the Finance Department. This led the RBI to impose a fine of Rs 8 crore on the Telangana government, which the Congress government paid after coming to power in December 2023.
KT Rama Rao, son of former CM K Chandrashekhar Rao, is accused of misusing of authority as the Municipal Administration and Urban Development minister. It is being said he played a key role in hosting the race, which was later supposed to be held in February this year, but got cancelled later.
The ACB had previously alleged that Rs 55 crore was paid to the Formula E organisers by the state government on the verbal orders of KTR. The charges also include mismanagement of funds and breachof trust.
Reacting to the FIR, KTR stated he would address the matter legally, with the BRS accusing the Congress government of making baseless allegations. The party also defended the efforts made by the previous government to benefit Telangana through this racing event.
In an open letter to Revanth Reddy, Rao said: “If you have the courage, initiate a discussion on the Formula-E race issue in the state assembly”.
“Instead of having closed-door discussions, the truth about this matter should come out before the four crore people of Telangana through a debate in the State Assembly,” he added.
KTR further asserted that the agreement was transparent and that all the payments were made to the organisers in a transparent manner. “I have already explained this in detail earlier. However, your government has not stopped its false propaganda,” he said.
