Amaravati land case: CID search homes of ex-minister P Narayana’s daughters

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh CID carried out searches at the residence of former minister P. Narayana’s relatives in connection with the purchase of lands in Amaravati.

Fixation of ‘Seed Capital Area’ based on the location of the minister’s lands

Former minister for MAUD P. Narayana played a key role in preparing the master plan of the capital city/Seed Capital area by guiding the master planner, Surbana Jurong, owing to his position as the vice-chairman of APCRDA and as minister of the MAUD department. The CID found that by using his position in the high-level committee, Mr. Narayana could select the particular 6.84 sqm of land to be ring-fenced as a “Seed Area.”

Using the prior privileged information about the location of the start-up area, he purchased lands located in and around the start-up area through benami transactions during June, July, and August 2015. These include Rs. 4.23 crores in the name of Avula Muni Shankar ( the minister’s wife P. Ramadevi’s cousin), Potturi Prameela who is an employee of NSPIRA Management Services Pvt. Ltd. (managed by Puneeth Kothapa, the minister’s son-in-law, and daughter Sindhura); Rapuru Sambasiva Rao who is the brother of Mrs. Ramadevi, and Varun Kumar Kothapa, the brother of Puneeth Kothapa. Bulk deposits and transfers of funds were made to the accounts of Potturi Prameela, Avula Muni Shankar, and Rapuru Sambasiva Rao just before the purchase of the lands, and lands were purchased in their names as the benamidars of the minister.

Changes in alignment of Inner Ring Road

While designing the alignment of the Inner Ring Road (Eastern by-pass segment for Vijayawada), Mr. Narayana personally directed the designing consultant to arbitrarily shift the alignment of the IRR, two to three km away from the 100 feet road from Tadigadapa to Enikepadu, closer to seven of the campuses of the Narayana Educational Institutions. He also got changes in the IRR made for the benefit of Lingamaneni Group and Heritage Foods Pvt. Ltd., the CID found.

Benami purchases of assigned lands

Mr. Narayana, his family members, and relatives as benamis, illegally purchased 148 acres of assigned lands in Amaravati capital city.

Through Narayana Education Society, Narayana Learning Pvt. Ltd., and Ramanarayana Trust, Rs. 17.5 crores were channelized into the bank account of Ramakrishna Housing Private Ltd. P. Subrahmanyam, Puneeth Kothappa, Ponguru Sindhura, Ponguru (Ghanta) Sharani, P. Ramadevi, and P. Indira were the family members of Mr. Narayana who were the authorized signatories for the bank accounts of the above entities.

The money was then routed into the bank accounts of the employees of Ramakrishna Housing Pvt. Ltd. headed by K.P.V. Anjani Kumar and payments were made to the farmers of the assigned lands. The farmers of the assigned lands were made to believe that the government would take the assigned lands without paying any compensation and the sale agreements were made in the names of the relatives of Mr. Narayana, acting as the benamidars.

The AP CID is carrying out searches in the Hyderabad-based residences of Puneeth Kothapa and Ponguru Sindhura, and Indira and Sharani, the daughters of Mr. Narayana.