HYDERABAD: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Telangana government, BHEL and others concerned for filing counter affidavits in the special leave petition filed by Nagam Janardhan Reddy, former minister and Telangana Congress leader, seeking CBI probe into alleged fraud in manipulating the estimates of electromechanical equipment meant for Palamur Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project (PRRLIP) costing about Rs 35,200 crore.
The bench was dealing with the SLP filed by Nagam against the order of Hyderabad High Court dismissing the PIL filed by him earlier on the issue. Nagam questioned the pricing of 145 MW motors and pumps procured by the State government for the purpose of PRRLIP.
On Monday, senior counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, told the Court that the State government had malafidely revised the estimates for various packages of the PRRLIP from Rs 5960.79 crore as estimated by Engineering Staff College of India (ESCI) to Rs 8,386.86 crore thereby causing a loss of Rs 2426.07 crore to the public exchequer.
However, the High Court had failed to appreciate that the State government in collusion with BHEL, Megha and Navayuga companies had fraudulently and illegally revised the project estimates.
Actual costs of the components of electromechanical equipment supplied by the BHEL were camouflaged to enable maximum benefit to private companies at the cost of state exchequer. The huge scam involved in the project implementation, he argued and urged the court to grant stay on project implementation.
After hearing both sides, the bench while refusing to consider the petitioner’s plea to stay, issued notices to the respondents and others concerned for filing counter affidavits on the issue, and posted the matter to April 26 for further hearing.