The administration on Friday filed a petition against Penamaluru MLA and secondary education minister Kolusu Parthasarathy in the first metropolitan magistrate’s court here for filing a false a declaration to the Election Commission in 2009.
Acting as per instructions from the commission, Penamaluru constituency returning officer S Venkata Rao, also the Vijayawada revenue divisional officer, filed a complaint alleging that the minister concealed facts related to an economic offence case pending against him in his election affidavit for the 2009 Assembly polls.
The petition cited Sections 125A and 33 of the Representation of People’s Act 1951 and Section 177 of the IPC against the minister.
An economic offences cour t had sentenced Parthasarathy to two months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5.15 lakh for a Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) violation in 1999.
The minister paid the penalty and moved the High Court against his imprisonment but failed to mention the case in election affidavits filed before the 2004 and 2009 elections.
Instead, his declarations stated that there were no cases pending against him.
In July this year, retired IAS officer E A S Sarma filed a petition with the Election Commission exposing Parthasarathy’s false affidavits.
The commission directed the Krishna district collector to conduct an enquiry, which confirmed that Parthsarathy did indeed conceal facts in his disclosure.
Parthasarathy has claimed that the economic offence was not his fault.
A bank had defaulted on a payment to be made by his company KPR Plastic Limited to a foreign firm.