Chennai: More skeletons seem to tumble out after I-T raids on the residence of former chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao, his son and relatives.
It has now emerged that Rao, who was the private secretary to the then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa from 2011-2016 and chief secretary from June 2016 to December 2016, had “misused” his official position to help his son and his front companies bag contracts worth crores of rupees.
Sources in the I-T department say Rao, whose writ ran across the power corridors in Tamil Nadu, they believe, had played a major role in the companies owned by his son and his friends bagging contracts not just those awarded by the state government but also the Union government.
According to documents available with the I-T department, Padmavathi Hospitality and Facilities Management, owned by Bhaskar Reddy who serves as director in Swan Facility Services Management of Rao’s son Vivek Pappisetty, had bagged a contract from the Directorate of Medical Education of Tamil Nadu worth over Rs 300 crore early this year.
The contract was for outsourcing of housekeeping, cleaning and security services of government hospitals in the state, the I-T sources said.
Naidu joined Rao’s company as director in 2014, two years before the said contract was awarded, clearly indicating that Rao played a role in getting favours.
Reddy and Vivek seem to be business partners and both serve as directors in companies owned by the other. Padmavathi Hospitality and Facilities Management had bagged contracts from Bhel, Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tamil Nadu Tourism Department and South Central Railway, the I-T sources said, quoting documents available with them.
They also said they were also probing Vivek’s links with a huge condominium that has nearly 500 individual flats in Bengaluru. Documents seized during the raids indicate that Vivek holds huge share in the property, but we are still verifying about the exact share. “We are probing all angles and going deep into every document that we recovered,” a source in the I-T department said.
Sekhar, Vivek had matching car numbers
PWD sand contractor J. Sekhar Reddy arrested by CBI, and Vivek, son of tainted former chief secretary Rama Mohana Rao, may have common business interest.
But it seems they were linked in more than one way. Even their car numbers were matching as both were using car numbers with registration ending with 0005.
“They were using similar sounding car registration numbers. A Hyundai Verna found in the house of Vivek had registration number TN 47 AH 0005. As of the records available it is registered in June 2013, in the name of Karpagam Palaniswamy at Karur RTO. Similarly, Reddy’s cars also have numbers ending with 0005,” sources said.
His BMW X5, with number TN 09 CP 0005, registered in Chennai in September, 2015, was found to be in the name of JSR Infra Developers Pvt Ltd, while his BMW 730 LD with registration number TN09 CK 0005 registered in December 2014, Chennai, is in the name Vaibhav Infrastructure.
