TPCC President & MP Revanth Reddy demanded a judicial probe into the allegations of corruption against Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP A Revanth Reddy on Friday demanded a judicial probe into the allegations of corruption against senior IAS officer & Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar.
It has been alleged that a government contractor had paid Rs 50 lakh worth of bills for the wedding of Kumar's daughter.
"A leading news portal has published a report alleging that the expenses for the five-star wedding ceremony of Special Chief Secretary Rajat Kumar's daughter, held from December 17 to 21, 2021, were paid by shell companies (Bigwave Infra Pvt Ltd & Interactive Data Systems) linked with government contractor Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL). The allegations are of a highly serious nature and could not be dismissed without a probe as the MEIL is constructing massive power sub-stations and transmission lines worth several hundred crores for the prestigious Kaleshwaram project of Rs. 1.15 lakh crore, and Rajat Kumar is heading the irrigation and command area development departments as Special Chief Secretary," Reddy said in an open letter to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Reddy said that it had been alleged that the marriage ceremonies spread across five days were held in Hyderabad's top hotels, and included a banquet at the luxurious Taj Falaknuma Palace.
A significant portion of the expenses were billed to BigWave Infra Pvt Ltd, and investigations revealed that the address of the company in the Bahadurpura area of Hyderabad's Old City was fake, Reddy claimed.
In addition, some top executives of the MEIL (Murali K and Prameelan T) were intimately involved in the bookings at hotels Taj Krishna, Taj Deccan and Taj Falaknuma, Reddy alleged. They had used their company email addresses, and also a dummy email address but signing off with real names, he said.
"The invoices were raised in the name of two companies - Interactive Data Systems and BigWave Infra Private Limited, which was created in June 2021. The directors of Interactive Data Systems are also on the boards of various MEIL companies. The report also claimed that the preliminary talks for the bookings were conducted by Rajat Kumar himself, and later the bureaucrat's Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Prabhakar Rao coordinated all the arrangements along with two MEIL executives," he said in the letter.
Reddy also said that it had been alleged in the report that Interactive Data Systems was incorporated in June 2010. Sumalatha Puritipati was the MD of the company while Venkata Subba Reddy Puritipati was a director and Krishna Veni Chintapalli an additional director in the company, he said. Both of them were also directors of many other companies that belonged to the Megha group of companies, Reddy claimed.
The TPCC President said that given all of that, it was highly shocking that even after 48 hours of publication of the news items by a news portal, the Chief Minister's Office did not issue any denial or clarification although the CM himself held the irrigation portfolio.
"The allegations are highly serious in nature and cannot be ignored. Therefore, I request you to kindly order a judicial probe into the allegations to ascertain the nexus between Rajat Kumar and MEIL. It must be clarified whether Rajat Kumar took favours by making the MEIL or its shell companies or other companies pay his private bills. Was it done on a quid pro quo basis, and what favours did he return to those companies by making them pay bills of over Rs. 50 lakh? Even if the allegations are false, the Chief Minister must ask Rajat Sharma to reveal the sources of money which were used to pay the exorbitant bills. If the allegations are true then a case of corruption should be booked against Rajat Kumar and other officials involved in the wedding planning," he demanded.
The TPCC chief also demanded that the companies facing corruption allegations should be blacklisted and a probe should be ordered into all the projects executed by them.
"If a company is fair, then it will never offer/pay bribes to an IAS officer. Bills of over Rs. 50 lakh for the marriage of an IAS officer's daughter will be paid only by companies/individuals who receive undue favours. Therefore, those undue favours must be exposed," he demanded.
"If the allegations against Rajat Kumar are true, then it is a fit case to be probed for disproportionate assets. I request you to not assign any post to Rajat Kumar till the completion of the preliminary investigation. Further, no fresh contract must be given to MEIL till the completion of the investigation," he said.
Revanth Reddy said that the Chief Minister must order a judicial probe into the matter immediately as he was handling the irrigation portfolio.
"A high-level probe will show that you have zero tolerance for corruption. However, any move to protect the IAS officer, MEIL or other companies would send the wrong message that you were aware of their unholy nexus and might also be involved in such deals," he said.