The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday suspended Pendyala Srinivas, an assistant secretary-rank officer, in connection with the alleged receipt of kickbacks on behalf of former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu from the construction companies engaged in Amaravati works.
Orders to this effect were issued by chief secretary K S Jawahar Reddy on Saturday.
The orders said Srinivas was being suspended not responding to the show-cause notices issued by the government earlier questioning his role in the kickbacks allegations.
Srinivas, who had worked as personal assistant to Naidu when the latter was the chief minister between 2014 and 2019, had been absconding ever since the reports of Income Tax department serving notices to Naidu came to light recently.
Despite being an assistant secretary in the state planning department, Srinivas flew to the United States of America without taking permission from the higher officials, which is against the service rules.
His name surfaced in the Income Tax department notices to Naidu in July and also in the confession statement of a senior official MVP of Shapoorji Pallonji constructions company, which took up several projects in Amaravati.
The Crime Investigation Department also filed a separate case against Naidu and his associates including Srinivas in the Amaravati kickbacks case, linking it to the skill development scam.
The CID alleged that Srinivas had played a key role in providing funds to Naidu from the construction companies.
The I-T department, too, conducted searches in the residence of Srinivas a couple of years ago, but could not find any cash.
The CID mentioned the name of Srinivas and another person Kilaru Rajesh in the skill development scam case, but both of them had left for the US much before the FIR was registered.
