The Andhra Pradesh High Court today adjourned the hearing to Thursday on a petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which challenged the grant of bail by the CBI Special Court to suspended IAS officer and the prime accused in the APIIC-Emaar township scam B P Acharya. The court also observed that the offence committed by Mr Acharya was similar to Mr Koneru Prasad, accused number six in the case, and hence the disparity cannot be agreed upon. Earlier, CBI’s senior counsel argued that there was no need to get Central Government’s sanction to prosecute Acharya as he was booked under Sections 409 and 120B of IPC and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI court granted him bail as the CBI had failed to get Centre’s sanction for his prosecution. Mr Acharya was released from the Chanchalguda Jail on Friday last after he was in Judicial remand for nearly two months. He was the Managing Director of APIIC when the alleged irregularities took place which lead to dilution of APIIC’s equity in a joint venture with Emaar Properties. The alleged irregularities involved preferential allotment of villa plots and siphoning of money. He is accused of playing a key role in the APIIC deal with Emaar Properties. UNI