Hyderabad, September 26: Panchayat raj minister B Satyanarayana has expressed relief over the deletion of his name from the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the city courts in the 2-million Euro Volkswagen scandal.
Speaking to reporters here today, the minister claimed that the fact that he had no involvement in the scam had been finally confirmed by the CBI. The minister said that the CBI had held a press conference in the morning at Delhi and stated that the names of the officials and non-officials of the state had been removed from the chargesheet.
Giving an account of the scandal that broke out in 2005 and the serious allegations levelled against him as the then industries minister, Satyanarayana said before the Congress came to power in 2004, the Germany-based Volkswagen had decided to set up a plant in India and entrusted the job to its Indian representative, Schuster.
The company had deliberations with the governments of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and AP in this regard. After he became a minister, the Volkswagen representative had met him and informed him of their plan to which he had given his nod and started negotiations. After some meetings, he and some officials had visited Germany and held talks with the Board of the Volkswagen, Satyanarayana said.
The company board, in principle, had agreed to set up the plant in the state and decided to send a team to choose a suitable site. Later, a special purpose vehicle was set up, the minister said.
As the process was on, allegations had been levelled against him that he had taken Rs 11 crore for permitting the project following which he had asked the then chief minister the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to order a CBI probe, the minister said.
The CBI had probed the matter and confirmed that the Rs 11 crore that had been mentioned was in fact related to a deal between the SPV and the Volkswagen officials. The CBI inquiry had absolved him, then managing director of APIIC L V Subrahmanyam and his officer on special duty of the charges, the Panchayat Raj minister said.
When the Volkswagen had come forward to return the Rs 11 crore, the then government had rejected it and wanted the company to set up its plant in the state. The company promised that if it decided to set up a plant in India then it would be in AP only, the minister said.
Claiming that the episode had taught him lessons, Satyanarayana said since then he had been studying issues carefully before taking decisions.
–Agencies