The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh police on Tuesday conducted inspections at the NSPIRA, an organization linked to family members of former Telugu Desam Party minister and founder of Narayna group of educational institutions Ponguru Narayana.
The CID officials conducted searches on the allegations that Narayana had purchased illegally assigned lands in Amaravati in the names of benami with this money.
It said NSPIRA Management Services Private Limited was incorporated with the daughter and son-in-law of P Narayana as the Directors (Ponguru Sindhura and Puneeth Kothapa). NSPIRA management services channelises payments for most of the procurements, manpower, infrastructure, etc. requirements for all the schools and colleges in the Narayana group and it earns commissions on these transactions.
The office of this company is located in Madhapur, Hyderabad and all the financial activities of the entities connected to the Narayana group are operated from the same premises.
The officers of CID started a search in the premises of NSPIRA management services on Tuesday. The searches are still going on and it is reliably learnt that key information on the flow of funds for the illegal and benami purchases of lands made in the Amaravati area was secured.
The CID said there were allegations that Narayana and his family members had acquired assigned lands of about 1400 acres worth Rs 5,600 crore in Amaravati capital city area, by creating a fear among the SCs, STs and BCs.
It said Narayana allegedly told them that the government would take away their lands under Land Pooling Scheme without giving any package and purchased the lands from them at cheaper prices.
Later, the minister pressurised the then officials for issuing of the GOs to gain benefits of the land pooling scheme for the assigned lands in the villages such as Mandadam, Velagapudi, Rayapudi, Uddandarayunipalem etc.
“In pursuance of their plan, they engaged Kommareddy Brahmananda Reddy, KPV Anjani Kumar, Gummadi Suresh, Kolli Sivaram, family members of the minister etc, who acted as benamis of the then ministers and purchased the assigned lands of poor people,” the CID said.
Pressure was brought upon the Sub-Registrar officers in Mangalagiri, etc. to allow registrations and GPAs on the lands in prohibited list.
Benamis and close political associates of Ponguru Narayana were identified as the major beneficiaries in this scam, the CID said.
These assigned lands’ farmers who later realised that they were cheated have been representing to the officials for protection and restoration of their rights and entitlements under the land-pooling scheme, the CID said.
