Hyderabad, March 25 BRS leader KT Rama Rao attacked the Telangana government on Wednesday, demanding to know if the government intended to portray the Rs 49 crore bank-to-bank fund transfer, used to bring Hyderabad onto the World Formula E racing map, as a "scam".
Telangana's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) recently filed a charge sheet in a court here in the Formula E race case, in which Rama Rao is the prime accused.
Apart from Rama Rao, the charge sheet was also filed against senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar, former Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) chief engineer B L N Reddy, and two others.
In a post on X, Rama Rao, also known as KTR, said that after two years and four months in power and two years of access to all documents and government machinery, the administration could only register a case related to the Formula E race, where funds were merely transferred from one bank to another.
"You want to portray the Rs 49 crore bank-to-bank fund transfer that was used to put Hyderabad on the World Formula E racing map as a "scam"? Dear desperate Scamgress, bring it on!" he said.
This ACB charge sheet not only symbolizes a clear desperation from the Revanth Reddy government but also a certificate of spotless governance, he said sarcastically.
The charge sheet demonstrates that there was no violation during the BRS, which ran a government that focused on development and nothing but development, he added.
The Formula-E race was held in Hyderabad in February 2023. Although the second edition of the race was initially planned for 2024, it was cancelled after the Congress government assumed office in December 2023.
The investigation against Rama Rao pertains to alleged irregularities in payments amounting to about Rs 55 crore, most of which were in foreign currency, in "violation of laid-down procedures" during the previous BRS regime, for the event planned for 2024.
In December 2024, the ACB registered a case against Rama Rao, Kumar, and Reddy.
The FIR was filed under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC, dealing with criminal misappropriation, criminal misconduct, criminal breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy.