Govt contractor paid Rs. 50 Lakh for IAS officials daughter’s wedding: Revanth

Hyderabad, January 28: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP A. Revanth Reddy on Friday demanded a judicial probe into the allegations of corruption against senior IAS officer & Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar. It is alleged that a government contractor paid Rs. 50 Lakh worth of bills for the marriage of Rajat Kumar’s daughter.

“A leading news portal has published a report alleging that the expenses for the five-star wedding ceremony of Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar’s daughter, held from 17th to 21st December 2021, were paid by shells companies (Bigwave Infra Pvt Ltd & Interactive Data Systems) linked with government contractor Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL). The allegations are of a highly serious nature and could not be dismissed without a probe as the MEIL is constructing massive power substations and transmission lines worth several hundred crores for the prestigious Kaleshwaram project of Rs. 1.15 Lakh crore and Rajat Kumar is heading the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department as Special Chief Secretary,” Revanth Reddy said in an open letter to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao.

The TPCC President said that it was highly shocking that even after 48 hours of publication of news items by the news portal, the Chief Minister’s Office did not issue any denial or clarification although the Chief Minister himself holds the Irrigation Portfolio.

Revanth Reddy said that it has been alleged that the five-day marriage ceremonies were held in Hyderabad’s top hotels including a banquet at the luxurious Taj Falaknuma Palace. A significant part of the expenses was billed to BigWave Infra Pvt Ltd., Further investigations revealed that the address of the company in the Bahadurpura area of Hyderabad’s Old City was fake. Some top executives of the MEIL (Murali K and Prameelan T) were intimately involved in the bookings at hotels Taj Krishna, Taj Deccan and Taj Falaknuma the venues and other liaison works. They used their company email IDs and also a dummy email ID (but signed off on mails with a real name), he said.

“The invoices were raised in the name of two companies – Interactive Data Systems and BigWave Infra Private Limited, which was created in June 2021. The directors of Interactive Data Systems are also on the boards of various MEIL companies. The report also claimed that the preliminary talks for the bookings were conducted by Rajat Kumar himself and later, the bureaucrat’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Prabhakar Rao coordinated all the arrangements along with two MEIL executives,” he said in the open letter.

Further, Revanth Reddy said that it has been alleged in the report that the Interactive Data System was incorporated in June 2010. Sumalatha Puritipati is the MD of the company while Venkata Subba Reddy Puritipati is the Director of the company and Krishna Veni Chintapalli is an additional director in the company. Both of them are also Directors of many other companies that belong to the Megha group of companies. BigWave Infra Private Limited on the other hand is fairly new and was incorporated in June 2021, just a few months before the wedding. The directors of the company are listed as Sandhya Agarwal and Anusha, and the company is registered for ‘building installation’ works, he said.

“The allegations are highly serious in nature and cannot be ignored. Therefore, I request you to kindly order a judicial probe into the allegations to ascertain the nexus between Rajat Kumar and MEIL. It must be clarified whether Rajat Kumar took favours by making the MEIL or its shell companies or other companies pay his private bills? Was it done on a Quid Pro Quo basis and what favors did he return to those companies by making them pay bills of over Rs. 50 Lakh? Even if the allegations are false, the Chief Minister must ask Rajat Sharma to reveal the sources of money which were used to pay the exorbitant bills? If the allegations are true then a case of corruption should be booked against Rajat Kumar and other officials involved in the wedding planning,” he demanded.

The TPCC Chief also demanded that the companies facing corruption allegations should be blacklisted and a probe should be ordered into all the projects executed by them. “If a company is fair, then it will never offer/pay bribes to an IAS officer. Bills of over Rs. 50 lakh for the marriage of the IAS officer’s daughter could be paid only by the companies/individuals who received undue favours. Therefore, those ‘undue favours’ must be exposed,” he demanded.

“If the allegations against Rajat Kumar are true, then it is a fit case to be probed for Disproportionate Assets of the senior IAS officer. Further, I request you to not assign any post to Rajat Kumar till the completion of the preliminary investigation. Further, no fresh contract must be given to MEIL till the completion of the investigation,” he said.

Revanth Reddy said that the Chief Minister must order a judicial probe into the matter on an immediate basis as he has been handling the Irrigation Portfolio since 2018. “A high-level probe will show that you have zero tolerance for corruption. However, any move to protect the IAS officer, the MEIL or other companies would send the wrong message that you were aware of their unholy nexus and might also be involved in such deals,” he said. (Maxim News)

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