ED summons KTR again, asks to appear on 16th January

Hyderabad: Sleuths of Enforcement Directorate have once again summoned BRS working president K T Rama Rao to appear before the agency on 16th January 2025 in the Formula E race case.

With the Telangana High court dismissing the quash petition filed by KTR, the ACB, and ED's case under PMLA stands intact.

The ED has also summoned accused 2 and 3, IAS Arvind Kumar and Former HMDA chief engineer B L N Reddy, to appear before the agency on 8th and 9th of January, respectively.

Meanwhile the State government has also approached the Supreme Court and filed a caveat petition soon after the High Court's judgement, (i.e The Telangana High Court has dismissed the quash petition filed by KTR).

ED’s investigation will mainly revolve around the trail of money.

ED's case under PMLA, is the second case registered against KTR in the Formula E race. The first FIR was registered by the Anti Corruption Bureau. The MLA is accused of transferring (verbally directing IAS officer Arvind Kumar to transfer) government funds of Rs 55 Crore to an International agency without the approval of the Cabinet or the state finance department, which by nature is a mandatory.

A source speaking to Newsmeter said, "This is government money, ED to probe the trail of money. Is it parked somewhere or has it reached an individual."

KTR, IAS Arvind Kumar booked

The ACB on December 19 registered a case against KTR, over alleged payments, some of it in foreign currency without approvals, to conduct the race in 2023 during the previous regime.

The case was registered under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC dealing with criminal misappropriation, criminal misconduct, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy that allegedly resulted in loss to the government exchequer to the tune of about Rs 55 crore.

Though the race was supposed to be held in February 2024 as well, it was cancelled after the Congress government assumed office in December 2023.

KTR, who was Municipal Administration Minister during the previous BRS regime, was also summoned by the ED for questioning on January 7th over alleged irregularities in conducting the race in Hyderabad. However KTR did not appear.

The FIR named Rama Rao, an MLA now, as prime accused, senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar and retired bureaucrat BLN Reddy as accused no 2 and 3 respectively.

The ACB has summoned KTR to appear before it on Monday. However, because his counsel was denied permission to join him, the BRS working president filed a written statement to the ACB and did not appeared before them.