Hyderabad, August 17: Senior Congress MLA DL Ravindra Reddy on Monday opined that the deal between the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and the Emmar Properties is not legally valid since it was not approved by the Board of Directors before it was signed and it was struck without the knowledge of Chief Minister K Rosaiah.
Talking to media persons at Assembly premises, Mr Ravindra said that the deal was struck by two senior officials behind closed doors and powerful persons with very influential connections were behind the ‘scam’.
The Congress MLA said that he suspected the involvement of two senior officers behind the deal, but did not elaborate whether the officials were from the APIIC or from Emmar Properties. He said that he suspected the involvement of big corporate, Raheja, Indu and Brahmini in dubious land deals.
Mr Ravindra stated that Mr Rosaiah at that time was the chairman of a sub-committee probing allegations of irregularities in the deal at that time. He said that Mr Rosaiah had not recommended reducing share of Emmar Properties in the deal.
The MLA said that there was no way that the Chief Minister could be accused of negligence.
Mr Ravindra emphasized that he saw no danger of any mudslinging against Mr Rosaiah because of the APIIC-Emmar issue.
The MLA further described those accusing him of raising the APIIC-Emmar issue with an eye on the Cabinet berth as ‘psychofans’.
The Congress leader also denied that he had jumped to the Chief Minister’s defense with an eye on the Cabinet. He said that, “I have not made these statements expecting a cabinet berth in the Rosaiah Cabinet. I want to ensure that the clean image of the Congress party in the country is not sullied. The party should come clean on these baseless allegations to instill confidence of people,” he said.
Mr Ravindra further said that the Central Bureau of Investigation probe would be able to unearth the murky details behind the allegations in what is thought to be a scam worth Rs 10,000 crore.
——INN