Hyderabad: BRS working president and former municipal administration minister K T Rama Rao (KTR) appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in the Formula E Race case on Thursday.
KTR was originally scheduled to appear before the agency on January 7, but after requesting a delay, ED officials issued a new notice for his appearance on January 16.
While the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is investigating the case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered an enforcement case information report (ECIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against KTR, son of former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), and others in the case.
The ED filed the ECIR after the Telangana ACB registered a First Information Report (FIR) against KTR and others in the Formula E funding case.
On January 7, the Telangana High Court quashed KTR’s petition to dismiss the FIR filed against him by the ACB over alleged misappropriation of funds in the conduct of the Formula E-Race. .
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the plea of KTR seeking quashing of criminal proceedings against him in the alleged Formula E-Race case.
The BRS leader had earlier asserted that Rs 46 crore was paid to Formula E Operations Limited (FEO) through a transparent bank-to-bank transaction.
Senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar and former HMDA chief engineer BLN Reddy had recently appeared before the ED over the same case and recorded their statements by the ED in this case.
Police made elaborate security arrangements near the ED office, where KTR is being interrogated.
A large number of BRS leaders and workers gathered at the probe agency office but were subsequently taken away by police.
Ahead of his appearance before the ED, Rao, in a post on ‘X,’ said, “Not a single rupee was misappropriated, and every rupee is accounted for. Where is the alleged corruption, misappropriation, or money laundering?” he questioned, calling the accusations baseless.
He reiterated that there is no wrongdoing, but driven by malice and political vendetta, the Congress government is hell-bent on dragging the well-documented events through the courts and investigating agencies.
