In yet another move to tighten the noose around the Telugu Desam Party headed by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the YSR Congress government headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday night constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe into the alleged irregularities committed by the Naidu government between 2014 and 2019.
The 10-member SIT will be headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police and state intelligence chief Kolli Raghuram Reddy and will comprise other senior police officers Babujee Attada, Ch Venkata Appala Naidu, Srinivas Reddy, Jayarama Raju, Vijaya Bhaskar, M Giridhar, Kennedy, I Srinivasan and S V Rajashekar Reddy as members.
The SIT will conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the irregularities committed during the TDP regime, as was highlighted during the study by a cabinet sub-committee headed by finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy constituted in June 2019, soon after Jagan took over as the chief minister.
The sub-committee reviewed all major policies, projects, programmes, institutions established (including corporations, societies, companies, etc), and key administrative actions taken since bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh, impacting the state’s development.
It found various procedural, legal and financial irregularities and fraudulent transactions concerned with various projects, including the issues related to land in CRDA region.
Now, the SIT would focus on insider trading of land indulged in by several individuals having prior knowledge of location of the new capital, manipulations of boundaries of capital under Land Pooling Scheme for monetary gains through appreciation of land value and systematic inclusion of areas belonging to TDP leaders and ruling party leaders and supporters into the new capital zone.
The SIT would inquire, register, investigate and conclude the investigation according to the provisions of CrPC, on the subject matter.
It would function as a nodal single point contact, including for sharing of information and coordinating if necessary, with the state and central investigating agencies.
The SIT would have powers to call for any person or officer in connection with the inquiry and investigation and to record his or her statement as per the provisions of CrPC.
It can also call for and examine any record pertaining to the issues/land transactions in various aspects, the GO said.