Former IPS officer and Centre for Liberty (CFL) chairman A B Venkateswara Rao (ABV), who has been taking aggressive stand against Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, has dragged the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition government to court in the alleged multi-crore scam in the procurement of electric transformers in the state.
ABV filed a public interest litigation petition in the state high court challenging the purchase of electric transformers at exorbitant cost. The petition came up for preliminary hearing in the high court on Wednesday.
The former IPS officer has alleged there has been a huge scam in the procurement of electric transformers in the state and accused officials of manipulating tenders and paying inflated prices for lower-grade equipment.
ABV has submitted petitions and evidence regarding these allegations in the high court and requested that a forensic audit be ordered into the whole scam.
He claimed that about Rs 40,000 crore worth of orders for transformers were manipulated to benefit Shirdi Sai Electricals Private Limited (SSE).
Tenders were floated for high-grade "Star-5" (EEL-V) transformers (tender number SPMPT-94/24-25), but the purchase order issued (PO 5100007791) was for lower-grade "EEL-III" (Star-3) transformers.
Despite the downgrade in quality, payments were reportedly made at the higher 'Star-5' rate of Rs 1,36,499 per unit, allowing for excessive profit per transformer.
ABV cited inspection reports dated March 21, 2025, confirming the supplied materials were EEL-III, not the required EEL-V.
He said he had urged the Andhra Pradesh Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (APSPDCL) to initiate a forensic audit of all transformer procurements since 2019.
He also filed a petition before the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission a couple of months ago, and the commission had assured that an inquiry would be held into the matter. Since there has been no response till now, ABV moved the high court.