VIJAYAWADA: Intensifying its probe into insider trading in Amaravati, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday questioned staff at the Kanaganapalli tahsidlar office in Anantapur district to verify the antecedents of two white ration card holders who bought land in Amaravati.
Former minister Paritala Sunita bought six acres of land in Amaravati in the name of her relatives, and with white ration card holders hailing from Kanaganapalli and a few other places also owning land in Amaravati, which they purchased in 2014, it is suspected that they are benamis.
CID officials visited the tahasildar office to crosscheck the details of one B Nirmala Devi, from Kanaganapalli mandal headquarters, who bought half an acre of land, and one Jayaram Chowdary, from Badalapuram of Kanaganapalli mandal, who bought half an acre of land in Tadikonda, Amaravati.
The deputy tahsildar told the CID officials that white ration cards were issued to both persons along with another person, and all three were found to have drawn ration last month.
The CID officials learnt that Devi owns around six acres of rainfed land. Though she claimed the land in Tadikonda was purchased with agriculture income, officials are sceptical, given that the entire region was in the grip of a drought. It is suspected that she was a benami.
Jayaram Chowdary, meanwhile, was found to be working as a manager at ADCC Bank in Agali mandal of Anantapur district, and his family reportedly owns several properties elsewhere. The CID is probing how he was issued a white ration card and why he bought land in Tadikonda.
The third person runs a private school in Tadipatri, has a white ration card, and bought land in Amaravati.
The possibility of the three being benamis of Sunita — or other TDP leaders from the district who bought land in Amaravati — is being investigated, sources said. The CID team is likely to visit the district again. In the second week of February, cases were filed against seven white ration card holders who bought assigned land. The CID had written to the Income Tax urging it to investigate 106 people who made cash transactions of `2 lakh to buy assigned land.