VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court Monday granted conditional bail to K Sambasiva Rao, the former Vice-Chairman and MD of Infrastructure Corporation of AP Limited (INCAP), who was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday in the alleged multi-crore AP FiberNet scam. While granting bail, the court asked Rao to cooperate with the investigation and submit two sureities of Rs 1 lakh each. The court also asked the officer to appear before the CID between 10 am to 12 noon every Saturday till the chargesheet is filed in the case.
The court asked Rao not to tamper with the evidence or influence the witnesses in the case. The court gave the liberty to the CID to seek cancellation of the bail, if the conditions were violated by Rao.
Justice K Lalitha, who heard the petition, granted the bail after imposing conditions. Rao’s counsel B Adinarayana Rao said no irregularities took place in the tendering process of AP FiberNet project and the tender was given to TeraSoft after the high-level tender committee took the decision.
Adinarayana Rao said the Centre was not given prior information about the arrest of Sambasiva Rao, an IRTS officer, by the CID and said the officer would be suspended if he is in custody for 48 hours. Arguing on behalf of the CID, additional advocate general Jasti Nagabhushan said the scam involves money laundering and informed the court that information regarding the same would be given to the Central agencies too. The AAG said Sambasiva Rao, as the VC&MD of INCAP, had extended the period of the tender only to enable TeraSoft bag the contract. The AAG said Rao, if granted bail, might alert those involved in the scam who were yet to be arrested. The CID, on September 9, registered a case under various sections of the IPC against 18 persons and some government officials.