VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (APCID) on Saturday evening served a notice on TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh under Section 41 (A) of CrPC, directing him to appear before the probe agency at its Economic Offences Wing-II office in Tadepalli on October 4 at 10 am for questioning in the case pertaining to the alleged irregularities in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road (IRR).
In its notice, the CID also asked the TDP leader to bring with him three documents— bank account details of Heritage Foods Limited, minutes of the board meetings related to land transactions and payment details for the land transactions—for the purpose of investigation. The slueths, who arrived at TDP MP Jayadev Galla’s residence in New Delhi, were received by Lokesh who appeared to be very calm.
The 40-year-old offered the CID officers coffee and sought to know why they came all the way to the national capital even after he had informed them that he would appear for questioning after receiving the notice on WhatsApp. In response, the officials told Lokesh that they had reached New Delhi to hand over the notice to him before sending the message. Speaking to reporters later, the TDP general secretary alleged that false cases were being foisted against him.
Terming the developments ‘regime revenge’, he said, “The CID has become a frontal organisation of the ruling YSRC. They have booked false cases against people who are in no way related to the issue.”
Stating that no inner ring road was constructed, Lokesh added, “It is surprising how they are projecting as if a scam has taken place and mentioned me as an accused.”
Asserting that none of the accused have done anything wrong, he said he will not seek numerous adjournments like Jagan, who is out on bail today.“We are clean. There is no evidence against us. Let them prove their allegation that we have more money and land than we ought to have, we will hand it over to the government,” he maintained.
Asked about the documents that he has to submit for the questioning, Lokesh explained, “The land in question is the 9.65 acres purchased by Heritage Foods for setting up a plant. It is located some 40 km from the core of Amaravati capital and a couple of kilometres away from the highway. I am just a shareholder now and have no knowledge of the company’s daily operations.”
Taking strong exception to YSRC leaders claiming that he was avoiding the CID sleuths who had arrived in Delhi on Friday, Lokesh said when he directly asked the investigators about the accusation, they responded saying that they reached the national capital only on Saturday morning.
“I have lodged a protest with the CID and asked the officials to inform the investigation officer, DIG and even DGP to set the facts straight. If there is no clarification on the issue, it will become a media trial. If needed, I will approach the Supreme Court for justice in this regard,” he averred.
The probe agency had recently mentioned Lokesh as accused number 14 in the IRR case. His father and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu along with former municipal administration minister P Narayana were named as accused number 1 and 2 respectively. They have been accused of manipulating the master plan of Amaravati capital city and the alignment of the inner ring road in favour of various people on a quid pro quo basis.