Roads and buildings minister Dharmana Prasada Rao was on Monday named as an accused in the Vanpic case in the fourth chargesheet filed by the CBI in the Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy investments case.
The bureau named Mr Prasada Rao, who was revenue minister at that time, the fifth accused. The fourth chargesheet pertains to Vanpic Projects Private Limited of industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad who allegedly invested in Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy’s companies as a quid pro quo arrangement for land allotted to the port project by the then YSR government.
The CBI alleged that Vanpic got huge concessions from the revenue department in the form of GOs during when Mr Prasada Rao was the minister. The revenue department allegedly facilitated Mr Prasada Rao to illegally acquire lands in favour of Vanpic under the guise of development of the backward region.
Mr Prasad Rao had been questioned by the CBI twice earlier.
The CBI has so far named 14 individuals/entities as accused in the case. Apart from Mr Prasada Rao, they include Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, auditor Vijay Sai Reddy, Vanpic’s Nimmagadda Prasad, former minister Mopidevi Venkataramana.
Also named in the chargesheet are bureaucrats K.V. Brahmananda Reddy, Dr Manmohan Singh (principal secretary, animal husbandry), M. Samuel (chief commissioner, land administration).
The CBI named Mr Nimmagadda Prakash (Mr Prasad’s younger brother), and the entities Vanpic Projects, Jagati Publications, Raghuram Cement Corporation, Bharathi Cements, Carmel Asia Holdings and Silicon Builders in the fourth chargesheet.
Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, Mr Prasad, Mr Venkataramana and Mr Brahmananda Reddy are in judicial custody while Mr Vijay Sai Reddy is on bail. Mr Samuel and Dr Manmohan Singh, who were then secretaries in the revenue and industries departments respectively, were also named in the chargesheet.
The CBI has charged the accused under offences punishable under IPC Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 419 (punishment for cheating by impersonation) 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 477 A (falsification of accounts) and also under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The fourth chargesheet was submitted before the CBI court in nine trunks on Monday. The document contained 333 pages, of which the chargesheet was nearly 177 pages. The CBI has listed more than 280 documents and cited about 250 witnesses, to explain the alleged role of the accused in obtaining the Vanpic project and causing huge losses to the exchequer.