VIJAYAWADA: AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) sleuths carried out searches at residences of former municipal administration minister P. Narayana and his relatives in Hyderabad on Friday in connection with alleged irregularities in capital city Amaravati land deals.
Houses being searched include that of Puneeth Kothapa and Ponnuru Sindhura, son-in-law and daughter of Narayana.
The former minister had played a key role in the preparation of master plan for capital city / seed capital area by guiding master planner M/s Surbana Jurong. He allegedly used his position to select a specific 6.84 sq. km land to be developed as seed area.
Armed with this prior information, Narayana purchased 65.50 acres of agricultural lands through benami transactions located in the seed area during June, July and August 2015 for ₹4.23 crore in names of Avula Muni Shankar, cousin of P. Ramadevi, who is the wife of Narayana; Potluri Prameela, who is an employee of M/s NSPIRA Management Services Private Limited managed by Puneeth Kothapa, son-in-law of Narayana and P. Sindhura, who is daughter of P. Narayana; Rapuru Sambasiva Rao, who is the brother of P. Ramadevi; and Varun Kumar Kothapa, who is the brother of Puneeth Kothapa.
The CID says all these individuals are benamidars of the former minister.
The investigating agency also accused Narayana of arbitrarily changing the alignment of the inner ring road by influencing the design consultant. The alignment got shifted two to three kilometres away from the 100 feet road from Tadigadapa to Enikepadu. The new alignment came closer to seven campuses of Narayana Educational Institutions. The change in alignment also benefitted the Lingamaneni Group and Heritage Private Foods Limited.
The AP CID further alleges that the former minister and his family members, apart from relatives, purchased 148 acres of assigned lands in Amaravathi illegally. Through Narayana Educational Society, Narayana Learning Private Limited and Ramanarayana Trust, an amount of ₹17.5 crore had been channelized into the bank account of M/s Ramakrishnan Housing Private Limited, P. Subrahmanyam, Puneeth Kothapa, Sindhura, Sharani, P. Rama Devi and P. Indira, who had been authorised signatories for bank accounts of the entities mentioned.
According to the CID, the money had been routed again into the bank accounts of employees belonging to M/s Ramakrishna Housing Private Limited headed by K.P.V. Anjani Kumar and payments made to farmers of the assigned lands.
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