Both senior IAS officer and special chief secretary Arvind Kumar and former HMDA chief engineer BLN Reddy have sought some time to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Formula E race scam.

While Kumar was summoned to appear before the central agency today the HMDA official was slated to appear tomorrow. Former municipal administration and urban development minister KT Rama Rao was also asked by the investigating agency to appear before it on 7 January.

Advertisement

The officials cited personal reasons and sought additional time from the central investigative agency. Rao too is consulting his lawyers to decide either to appear or skip his summons altogether since he has filed a petition in the High Court to quash the FIR filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau under the Telangana police.

The ACB had designated Rao as accused number 1, followed by Arvind Kumar and BLN Reddy.

The ED has filed an Enforcement Case Information Report based on the FIR registered by the ACB. However, the HC has now reserved its judgment on the case while extending the protection from arrest for Rao till it announces the verdict in the case.

The case against Rao and the two bureaucrats stems from the fact that the state government had decided to step in when the sponsors had backed out, putting the Formula E race in jeopardy.

The former minister and bureaucrats are accused of foregoing procedures violating the RBI guidelines and directly paying the organizers in foreign currency. This attracted the ED’s attention which registers cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and probes the money trail. The money was paid from HMDA’s account.

However, Rao has denied that there was any corruption involved in the matter since he did not personally benefit from the transaction.