Mopidevi In CBI Custody Till 29 May

The CBI special court at Nampally, on Thursday, remanded excise minister Mopidevi Venkataramana to CBI remand till 29 May. Earlier, he was arrested by the Central Bureau Of Investigation in connection with alleged irregularities in allotment of lands to the VANPIC project.

Mopidevi was arrested when he appeared for the second consecutive day before the CBI to face questioning in connection with the disproportionate assets case of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. The CBI officials questioned him about the allotments made for the VANPIC project.

Later, he was officially arrested, and taken to the Criminal Courts Complex at Nampally.

Mopidevi was produced before the principal special judge, who remanded him to judicial custody till 7 June. However, the CBI moved a petition, seeking his custody for further questioning.

After hearing the petition, the court granted the CBI 5 days custody of Mopidevi till 29 May. The court directed the probing agency to question him in the presence of his lawyers between 9:30am and 5pm, including a one-hour break from 1pm to 2pm.

The court permitted the CBI to keep Mopidevi at Dilkusha Guest House, the CBI's temporary headquarters in the city, during the night.

Except for answering two questions asked by the judge, Mopidevi remained silent throughout the proceedings. He avoided eye contact with media persons, even as his eyes were teary.

Meanwhile, in the remand report, the CBI claimed that Mopidevi Venkata Ramana had "approved the Cabinet Memorandum containing proposals for awarding the VANPIC project, withholding many important aspects related to the project, such as total extent of land decided for the project."

"He, in furtherance of criminal conspiracy, also approved placing the draft Concession Agreement having many contradictory provisions which are detrimental to the government of Andhra Pradesh and out-rightly advantageous to the Concessionaire, when compared to the Cabinet Memorandum," the CBI said.

The CBI said that Mopidevi must be held primarily responsible for the disposal of the business pertaining to his department, as per the Andhra Pradesh State Government Business Rules and Secretariat Instructions.

"Investigations revealed that the Concession Agreement contains many provisions, which have been included intentionally, which are detrimental to the interest of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in particular, and to the public at large," the probing agency said.

The CBI complained to the court that Mopidevi was not revealing all the facts related to the case, including the role of different public servants and private persons involved. (INN)