HYDERABAD: In a major setback to BRS working president and MLA K.T. Rama Rao, prime accused in the Formula E race scam, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday found “prima facie case of wrongdoing and misappropriation of funds of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.”
The court dismissed Rama Rao’s petition seeking quashing of the FIR filed by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) against him, senior bureaucrat Arvind Kumar and former HMDA staffer B.L.N. Reddy, as the agency should be given an opportunity to investigate the allegations. The court also refused to entertain Rama Rao’s plea to extend protection from arrest by 10 days.
Fearing arrest, the BRS top leader moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order, even as the state government filed a caveat.
Justice K. Lakshman of the Telangana High Court, who earlier asked the ACB to not take coercive steps till he pronounced judgment on Rama Rao’s quash petition, vacated the interim order on Tuesday. Maintaining that the ACB had filed a case on December 19 last and Rama Rao had filed the quash petition the next day, Justice Lakshman said the court should not act in haste and scuttle the investigation.
“The relief asked for (not to arrest) cannot be given in such types of cases,” he pointed out when Rama Rao’s counsel, after the pronouncement of orders, requested the court to give protection from arrest at least for seven to 10 days to allow them to look for alternative remedies.
The court opined that the allegations pertaining to malice, absence of dishonest intention and misappropriation, failure to arraign the alleged third-party beneficiaries, etc., were to be investigated.
The court refuted the contentions of Rama Rao that the ministers dealing with state largesse / public funds do not act as “trustees” and that there was no “entrustment” of public money on him and hence charges of criminal breach of trust could be invoked against him.
Justice Lakshman stated that a minister appointed to distribute government property acts as an agent of the government. Such a minister acts in furtherance of a duty imposed on him to ensure smooth functioning and better administration. Hence, it cannot be said that the petitioner was using public money of which there can be no entrustment.
“Here, the petitioner, being the minister of municipal administration and urban development department, had control over the HMDA and approved the note before signing of the agreement. Therefore, prima facie, the funds belonging to HMDA were entrusted with the petitioner,” the judge pointed out.
The court also considered the allegations made against Rama Rao, that he had “telephonically” directed the HMDA to act as a promoter and host the car racing event. The court noted that the HMDA was not a party to the new agreement signed October 31, 2023, even after it made the payment and it was the then municipal administration and urban development department that signed the agreement with the Formula E race organisers.
The court said when the ACB accused Rama Rao of directing the HMDA to pay huge amounts to a private party without obtaining approval from the state Cabinet or the finance department, it was required to be investigated whether he acted with a dishonest intention to cause gain to himself or third parties.
“The investigating powers of the state cannot be usurped and the courts cannot scuttle the investigation and about the same time, the courts cannot go into the correctness of the allegations and conduct a mini-trial while exercising its inherent power while dealing with the quash petitions,” Justice Lakshman said.
