The Telangana high court on Tuesday dismissed the petition filed by Vodarevu and Nizampatnam Port Industrial Corridor (VANPIC) promoted by industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad, seeking to quash the case against it in the alleged quid pro quo case being probed by Central Bureau of Investigation against YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The HC rejected the petition of VANPIC which sought the removal of its project name from the CBI charge sheet in the Jagan illegal assets case.
The CBI had included the name of the VANPIC project in its charge sheet. The case is currently under trial at the Nampally CBI court.
In July 2022, the high court had allowed VANPIC’s petition and gave it a clean chit. However, the CBI challenged that order in the Supreme Court. Considering the arguments of the CBI, the Supreme Court directed the high court to review the petition again.
Following these directions, the high court conducted fresh hearing and finally dismissed the petition of VANPIC.
According to the CBI chargesheet, the VANPIC project was given to Nimmagadda Prasad by the erstwhile Y S Rajasekhar Reddy government and allotted more than 15,000 acres of land in Prakasam and Guntur districts in violation of all the laws, rules and norms and granted several concessions.
As a quid pro quo, Prasad invested about Rs 854.50 crore in companies such as Carmel Asia Holdings Pvt. Ltd., Bharathi Cements, Jagathi Publications Pvt. Ltd., Silicon Builders, Sandur Power Company among others, which belong to Jagan Mohan Reddy, the CBI counsel argued.
He further submitted that based on the evidence collected, the CBI had already filed a chargesheet and the case is at the trial stage before the CBI court.
He requested the court to not grant any relief to the petitioner, otherwise the whole process of trial would be affected.
Nimmagadda was arrested on May 15, 2012, later enlarged on bail on October 18, 2013. CBI filed a chargesheet against 14 accused including the ministers of the day. A total of 73 accused were named in the case registered by CBI.
Senior counsel T Niranjan Reddy, arguing on behalf of VANPIC, said investments made by Nimmagadda in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s companies were genuine and cannot be equated to a bribe. He contends that there is no proof of the alleged quid pro quo deal.
