Former TDP MLA,son held for transport business “fraud”
FORMER TELUGU Desam Party
(TDP) MLAJCPrabhakar Reddy
and his son Asmit Reddy were
arrestedforallegedirregularities
in their transport business in
Anantapur district on Saturday,
a dayafter TDPMLA andformer
ministerKAtchannaidu was ar-
restedinanallegedESI scam.
The duo are accused of pur-
chasing buses from a private
company as scrap and running
them as regular buses through
transport company Diwakar
Travels, thereby endangering
publicsafetybyplyingunsafeve-
hicles, forging documents and
producingfakevehicleinsurance
policies.
Sources in ruling YSR
Congress Party said many TDP
leaders will face the heat as the
governmentopensinvestigations
intocontracts,businessdealings,
land purchases and irrigation
projectsduringtheNaidugovern-
ment’stenure.Aninvestigationis
alreadyunderwayintoallegedin-
sider trading by TDP leaders in
Amaravati. On June 11, the gov-
ernmentagreedtoorderaCBIin-
vestigationintoallegedirregular-
itiesintheimplementationofAP
Fibernet andother schemes.
“Thenoose is tightening.Any
TDPleader, even if it isNLokesh
Naidu,willfaceactionifinvolved
in corruption,” YSRCP
spokesperson and MLA Ambati
Rambabusaid.Thegovernment
hasalsoorderedprobes into the
Polavaram and Pattiseema irri-
gationprojects.
The state road transport de-
partment had filed 24 com-
plaints at Anantapur Town po-
licestationandthreeinKurnool.
Prabhakar Reddy was the MLA
from Tadipatri Assembly con-
stituency and lost in the May
2019elections.Heistheyounger
brother of TDP leader J C
DiwakarReddy.
Officials claimed the buses
purchased by Reddy were of
Bharat Stage III, which were
banned by the Supreme Court
from April 1, 2017. The buses
were registered in the names of
Jatadhara IndustriesandCGopal
Reddy,anassociateof Prabhakar
Reddy.
“As of now we know that
they purchased 154 vehicles of
BSIIIemissionstandards soldas
scrap — Jatadhara Industries
bought 50 vehicles and C Gopal
Reddy bought 104. They were
registered as BS IV vehicles in
various parts of the country, in-
cluding at RTA Ananthapur, in
the names of Jatadhara
Industries and C Gopal Reddy.
The transport department has
blocked andcancelled theregis-
tration of 101 buses and seized
60 buses while 41 are yet to be
traced. About 28 vehicles are in
other states and transport au-
thorities there have been in-
formed to block and seize vehi-
cles,’” Transport Minister Perni
Venkatarama told this to the state.
