KTR appears before ACB in Formula E race case

Hyderabad, June 16 Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and former Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Monday appeared before the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the Formula E race case.

Rama Rao reached the ACB office in Banjara Hills amid tight security for the second round of questioning in the case.

Police made elaborate security arrangements around the ACB office to prevent any gathering of BRS workers.

Speaking to the media before leaving for the ACB office, the BRS leader said he would not be scared even if he had to go to jail again.

KTR, as Rama Rao is popularly known, said cases registered against him and the harassment in the name of notices would not deter him from questioning the Congress government.

The former minister stated that he respects the law and judiciary and that truth will ultimately prevail. “They have so far summoned me thrice. Even if they call me 30 times, I will appear,” he said.

KTR slammed Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, saying he drew sadistic pleasure by making BRS president and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and former Minister T. Harish Rao appear before the Kaleshwaram Commission.

“Today, I have been summoned. They may arrest me. I went to jail in the past for the sake of Telangana. I am not scared if I have to go to jail once again. Not once, I am ready to go to jail 100 times,” he said.

KTR said the Chief Minister has no courage to touch KCR’s army of lakhs of cadres. He reiterated that the Chief Minister should come forward to undergo a lie detector test. “We both have ACB cases against us. I am ready for a lie-detector test, are you ready?” he asked.

Claiming that the Formula-E race boosted the image of Telangana, he alleged that the actions of the Revanth Reddy government were maligning the state.

The BRS leader earlier visited the party headquarters, Telangana Bhavan, where a large number of party workers gathered to show solidarity with him.

The ACB had earlier given notice to KTR to appear on May 28. The BRS leader, however, informed the agency that as he planned to leave for a foreign tour, he would appear before them after he returned.

The former minister had appeared before the ACB on January 9 in the case relating to the conduct of the Formula E race in Hyderabad in January 2023, when the BRS was in power.

The ACB in December last year booked a case against KTR, former Special Chief Secretary to the government, Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department, Arvind Kumar and former Chief Engineer of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) B.L.N. Reddy for alleged Rs 54.88 crore irregularities in the Formula-E deal.

The FIR was registered on a complaint by the Principal Secretary to the government, MA&UD department, M. Dana Kishore, who stated that foreign remittances were made without prior approvals of the relevant regulatory authorities, which resulted in an additional tax burden to HMDA to the tune of Rs 8.06 crore.

The complainant also alleged that the payment was made while the Model Code of Conduct was in effect for the elections to the State Legislative Assembly without any prior approval of the Election Commission of India.

The FIR was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

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