HYDERABAD: In what could be seen as a setback for former PCC chief and YSRC leader Botcha Satyanarayana, the State government has decided to order a fresh probe into the liquor scam that surfaced in 2012 in which several ministers in the erstwhile N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s Cabinet had faced allegations.
Excise Minister Kollu Ravindra informed Assembly here on Wednesday that the State government was not satisfied with the probe ordered by the erstwhile Congress government into the liquor scam. Hence, it had decided to order a fresh probe to bring all the guilty to the book, he added.
Stating that the Anti-Corruption Bureau(ACB) had registered cases against five politicians and 80 officials allegedly involved in the liquor scam, Ravindra said Botcha’s brother Botcha Adinarayana, former minister Dharmana Prasada Rao’s nephew Venkat Satyanarayana, C Chinnakeshwar Reddy, Chinna Appala Naidu and Ram Manohar Naidu figured in the list. The ACB had registered 25 cases, 12 of corruption and 13 against benamis and about 750 people were examined, he said.
Earlier, TDP member D Narendra alleged that since Botcha Satyanarayana and Dharmana Prasada Rao’s family members and powerful Congress leaders were involved in the scam, the then Congress government had tried to dilute the case and no action was taken against the accused,” he alleged.
TDP member K Appala Naidu said though Botcha Satyanarayana’s brother Adinarayana was the kingpin of the illicit liquor syndicate his name was removed from the list of accused by the Congress government.