In a surprising development, the Central government has given permission to CBI to prosecute two senior IAS officers of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh cadre for their involvement in a high-profile case of corruption.
Following the clearance, the first of its kind during the current NDA regime, the CBI will prosecute special chief secretary rank officer Dr LV Subramanyam (now in Andhra Pradesh) and BP Acharya (Telangana) under the provisions of prevention of corruption act.
CBI named these two IAS officers of the 1983 batch as accused in the charge-sheet filed in the now famous Emaar case of worth ₹4500 crore.
BP Acharya, the first accused in the case spent about seven months in jail and he was reinstated in service after he secured bail from CBI court in November 2013.
During the scam period both Subramanyam and Acharya were managing directors of Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC).
CBI charged them with criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and showing forged documents as genuine, under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
This happens everywhere. In normal times, such cases do not surface as they protect each other. Ministers appoint pliable officers as secretaries, flouting cadre management rules, with scant respect to the seniority. And officials, in return, willingly surrender to their political bosses and do whatever asked for.
This clearance has been accorded a week after a survey (2015-16) conducted by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) revealed that Andhra Pradesh is the most corrupt state in India along with Tamil Nadu. According to NCAER about 74% of the respondents felt the AP government was corrupt.
In the early days of the Congress government led by YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Subramanyam and Acharya were the most powerful of all bureaucrats in the state.
Emboldened by this proximity to the powers that were, they duo took many decisions that benefited the Emaar Properties, Dubai, at the cost of the state.
The Scam
APIIC and Emaar Properties, Dubai signed an MoU to develop a township and a convention centre on 535 acres of land near Hyderabad. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) was set up with a stake of 29% and 49% for APIIC in the projects.
The SPV which was to execute the project, without the knowledge of APIIC, transferred the rights to a third party Emaar-MGF.APIIC obviously had no say in its because they were apparently kept in the dark.
Later, Emaar properties signed another agreement with a company called Stylish Home to sell the plots and residential units of the project for a commission of 4%.
According to CBI, Stylish Home collected cash ranging from ₹5000 to ₹50,000 per sq yard but documented the rate as a flat ₹5,000 per sq yard and deprived the APIIC of its due share. On the other hand, the stake of APIIC in the project was reduced for which the MD had given his seal of approval without clearance from the board of APICC.
Acharya, according to CBI, colluded with Emaar and did not intentionally object to the Emaar’s MoUs with third parties and the sale of villas and plots at lower prices.
Occasionally, when some external force such as courts interfere, the perfect live-in relationship gets disrupted and these corruption charges surface. Even the Emaar case was entrusted to CBI not by the government, but by the High Court following a petition by an MLA
Commenting on the clearance for prosecution of two of his former colleagues, retired IAS officer Md Shafiquzzaman of 1977 batch said this scam like any other scam such as Taj Corridor, and was the result of willing collusion between politicians and bureaucrats.
“This happens everywhere. In normal times, such cases do not surface as they protect each other. Ministers appoint pliable officers as secretaries, flouting cadre management rules, with scant respect to the seniority. And officials, in return, willingly surrender to their political bosses and do whatever asked for.
“Occasionally, when some external force such as courts interfere, the perfect live-in relationship gets disrupted and these corruption charges surface. Even the Emaar case was entrusted to CBI not by the government, but by the High Court following a petition by an MLA,” Shafiquzzaman, who retired from Andhra Pradesh recently, told Asianet Newsable.
Shafiquzzaman fought an epic battle to force the government to honour cadre management guidelines throughout his career.
