AP HC orders probe into TDP boss Chandrababu Naidu's assets

In what could spell major trouble for TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, the AP High Court on Monday directed the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and state police to independently probe the allegations that he and his associates amassed wealth by plundering public assets. The court was responding to a petition filed last month by the late CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s widow and YSR Congress MLA, Vijayamma. All the three agencies were told to submit their reports in three months in sealed covers.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Ghulam Mohammed and Justice Nooty Rammohan Rao observed in their order: "We are of the opinion that the petitioner has made out a case of misuse or abuse of power and also acts of indulgence shown by the 8th respondent (Naidu), warranting admission of this writ petition." The bench said it will decide on the criminal culpability after the three agencies submit their reports.

After going through the documents submitted by Vijayamma, particularly in the IMG land allotment and the KG Basin cases, the bench issued notices to other respondents too, including media baron Ch Ramoji Rao, Chandrababu’s wife Bhuvaneswari, son Lokesh and TDP leaders Nama Nageswara Rao, Sujana Chowdary, Maganti Murali Mohan, CM Ramesh and five others.

Naidu, who was in Vizianagaram on Monday, dismissed the allegations as baseless. "Principles of natural justice were not followed in this case because the court chose to order a probe without notifying or hearing me," he said. Stating that he was the only leader in the country to reveal the assets of his entire family, the TDP chief said if any of the charges leveled against him turn out to be true, he would donate 25% of his assets as well as the entire alleged benami assets to the YSR Congress.

Though the petitioner gave the court several documents running into more than 2,000 pages listing out several acts of alleged corruption by the Naidu regime, the bench chose to list out a few cases in its order written by the acting CJ. The excerpts:

Reddy Labs was given a sales tax deferment of Rs 25 crore for 14 years in 1998 by the Naidu regime. And, as a quid pro quo, its founder Anji Reddy, through his son Satish Reddy, bought 3 acres belonging to Naidu worth only Rs 36 lakh for Rs 3 crore. A huge 5 lakh sqft super structure was built on this land and the same was given to Google’s Hyderabad office at a monthly rent of Rs 2 crore. The company, Divya Sri, which built the Google structure, was given 7 acres of government land by the Naidu regime in Kondapur for the help it had rendered to the ex-CM.

The state government under Naidu did not bid for the KG Basin gas reserves and allowed it to go to Reliance. Naidu got Rs 2,600 crore invested in ‘Eenadu’ through hawala channels and shell companies to help his ‘conduit’ Ramoji Rao.Naidu’s son Lokesh’s education at Carniege Mellon and Standforduniversities between 1997 and 2002 was financed by huge donations by unknown entities to these varsities as he had little chance of entering these varsities because of his average marks in SSC and Inter. Moreover, the worth of land owned by Naidu in Bangalore, Mumbai and Nellore is put at Rs 100 crore.

The IMG-Bharata fraud involving allotment of 850 acres of prime land in Gachibowli and Mamidipalli by the Naidu regime. The CBI probe ordered into it by the YSR government is yet to take off.