Lokesh as accused in Amaravati Ring Road case

Andhra Pradesh's Crime Investigation Department (CID) has named former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's son and former minister Nara Lokesh as an accused in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road case.

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) has named former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s son and former minister Nara Lokesh as an accused in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road case.

The CID filed a memo in Vijayawada ACB Court on Tuesday, naming Lokesh as an accused in the case.

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The CID has already named Naidu as an accused in the case and filed a Prisoner Transit (PT) warrant petition against him in the same court.

Naidu, who is already in judicial custody in Skill Development scam, has approached the high court for anticipatory bail. The same is likely to come up for hearing later in the day.

In May 2022, the CID had registered an FIR against Chandrababu Naidu, former municipal administration minister Dr P. Narayana, Heritage Foods Ltd, and others, for alleged irregularities in the construction of an internal ring road in Amaravati.

The FIR was filed based on a complaint from YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Mangalgiri MLA A. Rama Krishna Reddy. It was alleged that certain illegal and corrupt activities were committed by highly placed government officials between 2014 and 2019 with regard to the design of master plan for the Andhra Pradesh capital and alignment of the ring road to cause wrongful gain to certain individuals.

Heritage Foods is a company owned by Chandrababu Naidu’s family. The ruling party has accused Naidu of large-scale irregularities in land acquisition and other aspects in development of the state capital Amaravati.

On September 19, the CID also filed a PT warrant petition against Chandrababu Naidu in the FiberNet scam.

According to CID, the work order for the first phase of the AP FiberNet Project of Rs 321 crore was allotted to Terasoftware in violation of rules and by manipulating the tender process.

The project was aimed at providing optical fiber connectivity to villages and towns across the state.

The CID has already stated that it is probing Lokesh’s role in all three scams. The scams allegedly took place when Naidu was the Chief Minister and Lokesh a minister in his cabinet.