Tightening the noose further around Telugu Desam party general secretary and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government has fixed him in the case related to alleged irregularities in the designing of inner ring road around Amravati capital city.
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday filed a memo in the special court for Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cases at Vijayawada, naming Lokesh as accused no. 14 (A-14) in the case. The court will take up the hearing next week.
According to the memo, Lokesh is one of the major individual shareholders of Heritage Foods Limited and he acted as one of the key management personnel, till 2017. He owns 23,66,400 shares, that is 10.20% of shares on his name in the company.
Lokesh also acted as a whole-time director of Heritage Foods Limited from 01.07.2008 to 29.06.2013 and after he entered politics, he continued in the company as Non-Executive Director from 29.06.2013 to 31.03.2017.
“The family members of Lokesh and their companies held the shareholdings of more than 56% in Heritage Foods and they have a controlling power over the company, including the power to appoint the board, which could get unanimous approvals for the transactions,” the memo said.
Between June and September 2014, Heritage Foods purchased about 10.4 acres of land at Kantheru village in Guntur district. This was their largest purchase of land between 2014 and 2019 all over Andhra Pradesh.
The company also purchased another 4.55 acres of land from the companies belonging to Lingamaneni Ramesh and Lingamaneni Rajashekar. The land banks of Lingamanenis (about 340 acres) and that of Heritage were adjacent to each other.
Under the guidance of his father N Chandrababu Naidu and former minister Ponguru Narayana, the draft perspective plan of Amaravati was designed in such a manner that there was an Inner Ring Road in it.
The initial design was changed, wherein the proposed Inner Ring Road was shifted from the border of the capital city to 2-3 kilometres southwards towards Kaza and Kantheru villages, to pass just adjacent to the lands of the Lingamanenis and Heritage Foods, obviously to enhance their value.
“Care was taken to ensure that their land was minimally acquired and the Inner ring Road with a 75 metres of Right of way came to lie just adjacent to these lands,” the memo said.
It said Lokesh was coordinating this purchase in conspiracy with his father Naidu, who is the A-1 in the case. In return, the Lingamanenis allotted palatial bungalow at Karakatta road on Krishna river banks to Naidu as quid pro quo deal.
The ACB court had issued ad-interim attachment orders under the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1944, against the Karakatta house.
On May 10, 2022, the CID filed a criminal case against Naidu and 12 others including former minister P Narayana, Lingamaneni Ramesh and Heritage Foods Ltd, in connection with the alleged irregularities in designing of the inner ring road around Amaravati.
The case was registered acting on a complaint lodged by YSRC leader and Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy on April 27 and submission of a preliminary inquiry report by the revenue authorities on May 9.
The CID registered a criminal case against Naidu and 12 others, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including Section 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating). Naidu was named accused no. 1 (A-1).
