The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana has once again summoned senior IAS officer and Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar for questioning in Formula E race case. The agency, which is probing the allegations of unauthorised misuse of government funds, has directed him to appear on Thursday.
Arvind Kumar was served notice two days after he returned from a month-long leave. He was summoned a few days after Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former minister K. T. Rama Rao were questioned by the ACB for the second time. This is the second time Arvind Kumar will face questioning by the ACB in this case.
He had earlier appeared before the anti-graft agency in January. He had reportedly informed investigating officials that he transferred funds based on instructions from higher authorities. The ACB on June 16 questioned K. T. Rama Rao (KTR) for nearly eight hours. 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 BRS was in power.
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The ACB in December last year booked a case against KTR, former Special Chief Secretary to 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). After appearing before ACB for the second time on June 16, KTR stated that he was not scared of arrest.
He said the ACB officials kept repeating a question and asked them to show him corruption in the case. 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.
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