Vijayawada: CID wasted my time, says Nara Lokesh

Vijayawada : TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh appeared before the Crime Investigation Department (CID) for the second day on Wednesday for questioning in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road alignment case.

Lokesh, who was questioned by the CID officials for six-and-a-half hours on Tuesday, reached the CID office at Tadepalli on Wednesday morning. The questioning went on for six hours from 10 am to 5 pm on the second day also.

Speaking to media after the questioning, Lokesh pointed out that he had attended the questioning on the instructions of CID officials for two days though AP High Court told him to attend one day. “Like yesterday, they asked 47 questions on the second day. They too were the same questions asked yesterday which were repeated like in a washing machine. Income tax returns of my mother Bhuvaneshwari, who is not an accused in the case, were placed before me and I was asked questions about them. The investigation officer didn’t answer when I asked them how could they get the IT returns of my mother. I am considering taking up a legal fight on the issue. Only four or five questions were asked regarding the Inner Ring Road. They repeatedly asked questions unrelated to my department,” he said.

The TDP leader said CID officials questioned him about the Rs 27 lakh advance rent paid to Lingamaneni Ramesh which was not shown in the I-T returns. He said they told them to ask the auditor about the I-T returns.

“How is it a quid pro quo if you stay in a home and pay rent? We have not bought any shares from Lingamaneni Ramesh like Rs 10 shares of Sakshi were bought at a price of Rs 350…”, he said referring to the illegal investment case in which Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is the accused.

He alleged that there were no one except Sakshi media in a position to make investments in the state and public funds are being used to even increase salaries of Sakshi employees. He pointed out that even the court had faulted the attempts to increase circulation of Sakshi using volunteers and issued a notice.

Lokesh said CID officials posed questions like setting up of APCRDA and the decision on capital which were nothing to do with his department. “CID showed a video on inner ring road alignment. In the footage, it was clear that the Heritage land is being lost due to the change in alignment. The 9 acres purchased by Heritage has been shown in Google Earth,” he said.

Reiterating that he or his family have no role in inner ring road, Lokesh said the CID had wasted two days of his time when he has many pressing engagements as the national general secretary of TDP.

He alleged that investors were staying away from the state due to the harassment by the government. “They are harassing me with false cases though I have nothing to do with the issue. The two officials who signed the orders in skill development corporation dealings were not investigated. Why Premchandra Reddy and Ajeya Kallam were left out but N Chandrababu Naidu, who framed the policy, has been arrested?” he said.