HYDERABAD: Will senior IAS officer BP Acharya reveal the names of the ‘real culprits’ behind in the APIIC-Emaar Properties scam? In an exclusive interview given to Express months after the CBI had registered a case against him, Acharya said that he was being made a “scapegoat’’ and that the “real culprits’’ were being protected by vested interests’’.
Sources close to Acharya said the senior IAS officer had been, of late, telling his colleagues about the role of a confidant of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy in the scam.
“I was directed by him (YSR’s Man Friday) to reduce the stake and even his brother-in-law was involved in the decision.
Why should I only be made the scapegoat?’’ is what Acharya is believed to have told.
Sources said that with the CBI delaying his arrest, though a case was registered against him on August 17, Acharya was somewhat confident that he would not be arrested.
“But the moment Vijay Raghavan was arrested, Acharya said he might be arrested anytime now and appeared disturbed,’’ the sources said.
Acharya said he hoped that the CBI would conduct an impartial investigation.
The CBI had searched Acharya’s residence in August 2011 and seized some documents.
Ever since he has been on the CBI radar.
The 1983-batch IAS officer has been paying regular visits to hospitals for checking his blood pressure which has been fluctuating ever since.
Twice he submitted his medical bills to the government.
‘’I am absolutely clean and will prove my innocence in the court of law.
I am being made a scapegoat by some vested interests who are trying to protect the real culprits.
I will come out vindicated.
I regret having had a stint as MD of APIIC,’’ Acharya had said in the interview with Express in the past.
Acharya, who has been advising his colleagues against ‘’blindly following’’ what political bosses say, appeared determined to name some of the top people on whose instructions the equity was reduced from 49 per cent to 26 per cent and again to 6.5 per cent, causing a huge loss to the exchequer.