Hyderabad: Noted entrepreneur Nimmagadda Prasad on Wednesday informed the Telangana High Court that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had failed to produce neither direct nor circumstantial evidence to substantiate its charge that he hatched a conspiracy with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to bag Vodarevu and Nizampatnam Ports and Industrial Corridor (Vanpic).
He also brought to the court’s notice that the investigating agency indeed suppressed crucial evidence it gathered from the lead promoter of the project Ras Al Khaima (RAK) Investment Authority, a wing of the sovereign state of RAK. The CBI ignored RAK letters to the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister besides its responses to 58-point questionnaire of the CBI.
Continuing arguments against the CBI’s charge-sheet on Vanpic, which is part of the quid pro quo cases filed against Jagan Mohan Reddy, the entrepreneur’s counsel S. Niranjan Reddy pointed out that the entire evidence was suppressed because RAK’s correspondence not only spoke in favour of the project but established the genuine credentials of Prasad as its nominee to represent to the government about the project.
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan was dealing with the discharge petition filed by Prasad and Vanpic Ports Ltd, to discharge their names from the case. The court was informed that the very existence of a concession agreement, signed on behalf of the Governor with the consent of the Cabinet, demolishes the conspiracy theory. The detailed project report was approved by the state government after the death of the then Chief Minister and Jagan’s father Dr Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy and till date the project is in existence and subsequent governments did not cancel it. The CBI has not produced any evidence to support its allegation that the agreement underwent drastic changes from its original version approved by the Cabinet in 2008, he argued.
Explaining about the project, the counsel said an industrial corridor was also proposed along with twin ports for sustainability and the CBI had grossly erred in combining the two. It was in everybody’s knowledge that while the ports were proposed under Build Own Operate and Transfer model, the industrial corridor was proposed under Build Own and Operate, he said, adding that Prasad’s company paid to the land owners while acquiring their lands for the industrial corridor project. The RAK’s correspondence right from the expression of interest document mentioned about both projects, he said.
With regard to changes in the equity structure, Prasad’s counsel argued that it was purely between the two partners and in no stage the changes in equity violated the state government’s condition as mentioned in the concession agreement that the lead partner’s stake should not go below 26.5 per cent.
