Hyderabad: Anti-Corruption Bureau seeks nod to take action on IAS officers

Hyderabad: The Anti-Corruption Bureau on Thursday told the Hyderabad High Court that no sanction was required to take cognisance when a government servant had taken a decision that caused a loss to the exchequer for personal gain, It urged the court to allow it to prosecute officials and businessmen involved in the irregularities in the Raheja Mindspace-APIIC joint venture project.
ACB special public prosecutor Ravi Kiran Rao urged Justice B. Siva Sankar Rao to dismiss the petitions of the accused in the case.The judge was hearing the petitions of IAS officers L.V. Subrahmanyam and B.P. Acharya, who were earlier managing directors of the APIIC, K. Ratna Prabha, M. Gopi Krishna and P.S. Murthy who held posts in the Information Technology and Communications department and Raheja of Raheja Corporation.

They sought quashing of proceedings before the ACB court taking cognisance of the charges of the ACB against them. Mr Ravi Kiran Rao alleged though Mr Subrahmanyam had chaired the meeting of APIIC and Raheja Corporation on December 3, 2005, he did not take the key decisions taken by it to the notice of the government. He said Mr Subrahmanyam had written to the government asking it to pay Rs 2.09 crore for 11 per cent share of the APIIC in the joint venture; he did not mention about the decision of increase the share capital from Rs 1 crore to Rs 20 crore, he alleged.

He said that at that time the APIIC had Rs 32 crore, despite which he had suggested that the government allot alternative land to the Raheja group at Nanakramguda. He alleged that all the officers who were accused in the case had played mischief and generated the idea of giving alternate land at Nanakramguda by rejecting payment of cash to the joint venture. This ultimately resulted in the decrease of share of APIIC from 11 per cent to a mere 0.55 per cent. He told the court that the officials restored the stake of APIIC to 11 per cent after the registration of FIR in the case. They rectified their mistake by paying Rs 2.09 crore cash to the joint venture and got the APIIC stake increased to 11 per cent again.