Immediately after coming to power, the NDA government led by TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu has started digging deep into the irregularities committed during the previous tenure at the behest of the then CM Jagan Mohan Reddy and his coterie. Among many allegations, two biggest scams that have reportedly taken place from 2019-24 pertain to sale of liquor and illegal mining of sand. The present government intensified efforts to find out the quantum of money embezzled due to abuse of power through liquor and sand sale.
As part of its efforts, the ACB last month nabbed the kingpin in sand mining, former Mines and Geology director AG Venkat Reddy. After he was suspended on July 31st, Reddy was at large before getting arrested in Hyderabad.He was handed over to custody for further probe into the violations.
During the enquiry on the first day, he has reportedly pointed all his fingers at the previous government for all the irregularities committed in his department that are said to have caused a loss of Rs 2500 Crores to the public exchequer. For some questions, Venkat Reddy didn’t speak and maintained silence without answering the officials.
Venkat Reddy has confessed that all he did was to follow the instructions of the bigwigs in the government. He has reportedly admitted that he has no power to deny the orders of his higher ups and admitted that he acted according to their whims and fancies as there is no alternative for him being a government servant.
He has squarely blamed the government for all the violations committed in his department and also stated that he was helpless at that time when the enquiry officers asked why he blindly followed the instructions being an All India Service officer.
He was grilled several hours by the ACB officials to find out who is behind this entire scam.When he was asked about the reasons for approving tenders/agreements without following the due procedure and also for allowing some companies to continue mining despite the lapse of the contracts, Venkat Reddy has reportedly stated that the officers know who were behind all those violations.
It is evident that officials like Venkat Reddy have been used as puppets by the previous government and crores of money was looted with abuse of power. If he turns approver, there are strong chances that the government might arrest some big leaders in the YSR Congress party who worked as advisors and held key positions in the last five years.
