Advocate: ACB report rejected

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Advocate T. Sriranga Rao, who is fighting the case against Tamil Nadu Governor and former AP chief minister K. Rosaiah in the Maitrivanam land scam case, said: “By issuing summons, the court has rejected the final report of the ACB which had given Mr Rosaiah a clean chit.”

He stated: “The court has already examined and recorded the statements of three key witnesses, IAS officials who worked in the municipal administration and HMDA departments when Rosaiah was CM.” The land was de-notified based on an application filed by industrialist G.N. Naidu of Regency Ceramics and others. Mr Rosaiah had issued GOs No. 288 and 367 in 2010, despite the HMDA’s report stating that Section 48 of the Land Acquisition Act did not apply to de-notification of the acquired land already in possession of the government.

K. Mohan Lal, an advocate, had approached the ACB court, and a case was registered in 2011 against Mr Rosaiah and 14 others for allegedly showing “undue favours by receiving kickbacks” from the beneficiaries and causing a loss of `200 crore to the government. The Anti-Corruption Bureau, which was led by controversial IPS official Umesh Kumar, had filed a report in court, stating that there was no material evidence against Mr Rosaiah and had asked that the case be closed.

However, the complainant filed a protest petition, stating that the ACB's final report was not acceptable and produced witnesses. The advocates who filed the case against Mr Rosaiah used the Right to Information Act to get hold of documents. “We applied under the RTI Act and exposed the scam. We obtained all the documents using RTI and though we complained to the ACB, they did not book a case initially. We then approached the court which directed for registration of the case. They then went to High Court and got the stay” the advocates said.

Mr Sriranga Rao said, “The High Court has lifted the stay on the proceedings of the ACB court. There are Supreme Court judgments that state that no person should occupy constitutional posts like governor when there is a criminal record. When Rosaiah took oath as TN governor, the criminal case number 7 of 2011 of ACB was pending against him.” “The land must be worth around `500 crore now. Under Section 409 IPC, the punishment would be life or 10 years. The information regarding the criminal case was suppressed and Mr Rosaiah was elevated to the constitutional post. We had written to the President, home ministry and the PM regarding this but no action was taken,” he added.