Retired IAS officer K Lakshminarayana, who was made accused no. 2 (A-2) in the multi-crore AP State Skill Development Corporation scam during his tenure as its director, was on Monday granted anticipatory bail for 15 days by the Andhra Pradesh high court in the case.
Lakshminarayana, who were served notice by the AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) during a raid on his residence in Hyderabad Friday, was supposed to appear before the CID authorities in Mangalagiri on Monday.
But he evaded arrest during the searches by getting admitted to a private hospital on complaints of high blood pressure. He moved the high court for the anticipatory bail on Monday.
Interestingly, the CID authorities also booked a case against Andhra Jyothy managing director Vemuri Radhakrishna for allegedly obstructing them from discharging their duties, apart from resorting to criminal conspiracy.
Radhakrishna, who happens to be a close friend of the retired IAS officer, went to the latter’s house on coming to know about the CID raids.
There were reports in Sakshi that Radhakrishna tried to obstruct the CID authorities from entering into his house.
But he brushed aside such allegations and claimed in his daily that he had, in fact, made Lakshminarayana and his family members to cooperate with the CID authorities.
He even claimed that the CID authorities asked him to stay back till the searches were completed and later even thanked him.
The issue would have ended there, but for Radhakrishna’s comments in his weekly column Tolipaluku on Sunday, in which he ridiculed Sakshi’s allegations again.
He went to say that had he obstructed the CID authorities, they would have filed a case against him and thrown him behind the bars.
Obviously, these comments have irritated the Jagan government. So, nearly 40-50 hours after the CID authorities conducted raids on Lakshminarayana house, they booked a case against Radhakrishna, too, under various sections.
Now, Radhakrishna is crying foul.
“How can the CID authorities, who asked me to stay back during the searches and even thanked me for my cooperation, book a case against me for obstructing their duties?” he asked.
Had he not made provocative comments in his column, he would have been spared!
