BRS leader KT Rama Rao on Friday got huge relief as the Telangana High Court directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau officials not to arrest him till December 30 in the Formula-E race case. The development come while High Court judge Justice Natcharaju Shravan Kumar Venkat was hearing a Lunch Motion petition moved by Rama Rao (also known as KTR) seeking to quash the FIR filed against him by the ACB.
The HC, while granting interim relief, directed the petitioner to cooperate with the investigation and posted the matter next week for further hearing.
The government was directed to file its counter.
The Telangana ACB on Thursday registered a case against BRS working president and MLA Rama Rao over alleged payments, some of it in foreign currency without approvals, to conduct Formula-E race in Hyderabad during the previous regime.
Governor Jishnu Dev Varma had recently granted permission to register a case against Rama Rao, over the issue. The FIR named Rama Rao as prime accused, senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar and retired bureaucrat BLN Reddy as accused no 2 and 3 respectively.
The case was registered under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and sections dealing with criminal breach of trust, conspiracy under IPC.
“Where is corruption in this? We have paid Rs 55 crore. They (Formula-E) acknowledged the payment. This is a straightforward account. HMDA has an account in Indian Overseas Bank and money has been transferred from that account,” Rama Rao had said reacting to the case.
Earlier this year, the government had sought an explanation from Arvind Kumar over signing an agreement concerning the Formula-E race allegedly without the approval of the competent authority and also making a payment of Rs 55 crore with majority of it in foreign currency.
Formula-E had announced the cancellation of Hyderabad E-Prix, alleging a contract breach by the new Telangana government. The second Formula-E Race in India was slated to be held on February 10.
(With inputs from PTI)
