VIJAYAWADA: As part of the probe into the alleged alienation of assigned lands in Amaravati capital region, raids at the office of NSPIRA continued for the second day on Wednesday. The Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (APCID) reportedly seized incriminating documents and hard disks belonging to the firm. It may be noted that former Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) minister P Narayana’s daughter P Sindhura and son-in-law Puneeth Kothapa are the directors of the company.
Earlier, the CID had registered a case under IPC Sections 166, 167, 217 and 120 (B) read with Sections 34, 35, 36 and 37, and Sections 3 (1) (f) and (g) of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and Section 7 of the Andhra Pradesh Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Rules, 2007 in the alleged scam.
According to CID officials, NSPIRA management services channelises payments for most of the procurements, manpower and infrastructure requirements of all schools and colleges under the Narayana Group, and earns commissions through these transactions.
“The office of the company is located at Madhapur in Hyderabad and all the financial activities of the entities connected to Narayana Group are also operated from the same premises,” sources in the CID said.
They added that they have identified crucial information on the flow of funds for illegal and benami purchases of lands made in Amaravati region.
It may be recalled that the probe was initiated after it was alleged that an extent of 140 acres assigned land was purchased by Narayana’s close relatives. Some of them were from Hyderabad, Nizamabad and Warangal in Telangana as well as from various parts of Andhra Pradesh, including Visakhapatnam.
According to APCID sources, “With an intention to grab assigned lands in the capital region and purchase them at cheaper prices, Narayana, a few other ministers and their benamis had created a fear among people belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Backward Classes (BC), saying that their lands will be taken by the State government for capital development under the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS).”
“After they (TDP leaders) purchased the lands, ministers brought pressure on officials and issued a GO 41 in 2016 to gain benefits of the land pooling for the assigned lands in Mandadam, Velagapudi, Rayapudi and Uddandarayunipalem villages,” a senior CID official divulged. The investigating agency has reportedly also identified the role of the former minister’s relatives, Kommareddy Brahmananda Reddy, KPV Anjani Kumar, Gummadi Suresh, Kolli Sivaram, and others in the alleged scam. It has been alleged that the people in question were Narayana’s benamis and purchased the assigned lands from poor people.
It has also been alleged that Narayana Education Society, Narayana Learning Private Ltd, Rama Narayana Trust and others firms were used to channelise the money to KPV Anjani Kumar through his company Ramakrishna Housing Private Limited. According to sources, “Anjani Kumar alias Bobby transferred the money into the account of his employees. Following this, payments were made to the farmers of the assigned lands in Amaravati region. The original documents pertaining to the lands were taken from the farmers and they were made to enter into sale agreements with Narayana’s close relatives. So far, APCID has identified transactions of 150 acres and collected documents pertaining to them.”
During the investigation, the officials reportedly noticed that various TDP leaders committed irregularities to the tune of Rs 5,600 crore and purchased around 1,400 acres of assigned lands before the Amaravati was announced as the capital of the State. Meanwhile, the TDP remained tight-lipped over the raids on their leader’s properties.