Hyderabad:Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has given nod to book a case of corruption against senior bureaucrat Arvind Kumar for his role in the alleged irregular payment of Rs 55 crore to the Formula E race organisers.
The sanction to investigate Arvind Kumar was granted under Rule 17(A) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, along with a former chief engineer. However, the Anti-Corruption Bureau had been waiting for Governor Jishnu Dev Varma’s clearance to investigate the role of former minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi president K.T. Rama Rao in the alleged fraud to formally register a case against all the three.
Sources close to the Chief Minister told Deccan Chronicle that Revanth Reddy personally requested the Governor at least on three occasions to give nod but the latter informed that the opinion of the Attorney General of India was still awaited. The Chief Minister, sources said, was keen on following the due process to make the legal moves against his arch political rival watertight.
“Since the courts made it clear that prior sanction of permission from the Governor was mandatory to proceed against public servants, we don’t want to rush to book cases and launch investigations that may not withstand legal scrutiny” a senior ACB official pointed out.
Arvind Kumar, in his capacity as Metropolitan Commissioner of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, released Rs 55 crore to Formula E operations from HMDA funds without approval from statutory authorities. In the note files, however, Arvind Kumar mentioned twice that then MAUD minister Rama Rao gave oral instructions to make the payments.
Significantly, Rama Rao recently owned up the responsibility for payment admitting that he gave instructions. “Though he sought to defend the payment as a measure to bring international recognition by continuing with the race, it is an undisputed fact that he flouted all the rules,” the official pointed out.
The alleged scam pertains to Hyderabad’s high-profile Formula E race, first held in February 2023 with an investment of Rs 200 crore. After the inaugural event, MAUD reportedly signed a new agreement with FEO in October 2023, to host Season 10 race scheduled for February 2024 and Arvind Kumar released Rs 55 crore to the organisers. However, as the state was under the election-related Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the transaction allegedly bypassed necessary approvals from the Election Commission and the finance department.
