Andhra Pradesh CID files memo in ACB court adding Nara Lokesh as A14 in IRR case

Lokesh’s father, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu is already lodged in Rajamahendravaram Central Prison as he was arrested by the CID in a case related to the alleged AP Skill Development Corporation scam.

In an intriguing development  AP CID on Tuesday had filed a memo in the ACB court in Vijayawada adding TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh as Accused no 14 (A14) in the alleged Amaravati Inner Ring Road (IRR) case.  

Lokesh’s father, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu is already lodged in Rajamahendravaram Central Prison as he was arrested by CID in a case related to the alleged AP Skill Development Corporation scam. 

The CID in the past had registered a case accusing Naidu, the then municipal administration minister Ponguru Narayana, Heritage Foods and few others as accused in the Inner Ring Road (IRR) alignment case. 

The CID on Tuesday filed a memo with the court stating that Lokesh has been added as an accused in the IRR case.

The case is related to changing the alignment of IRR of Amaravati when Naidu was the chief minister, that had allegedly benefitted a few private persons and also his family-run Heritage Foods Ltd.   

 CID sources said that Nara Lokesh was one of the major individual shareholders of Heritage Foods Limited and he acted as one of the key management personnel, till 2017. Further, he had 23,66,400 shares i.e. 10.20% of shares in his name. 

CID in the memo mentioned that between June and September 2014, M/s Heritage purchased about 10.4 acres in Kantheru Village of Guntur district that comes under  Amaravati core capital region.

This was their largest purchase of land, between 2014 and 2019, all over Andhra Pradesh.

M/s Heritage also purchased another 4.55 acres from the companies belonging to private individuals Lingamaneni Ramesh and Lingamaneni Rajashekar. However, the sale deeds were cancelled later.

The land banks of Lingamanenis about 340 acres and that of M/s Heritage came to lie adjacent to one another, said CID.

“Under the guidance of Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Ponguru Narayana, the Draft Perspective Plan of Amaravati was designed in such a manner, that there was an Inner Ring Road in it. The initial design was changed, wherein the proposed Inner Ring Road was shifted from the border of the Capital city to 2-3 kilometres southwards towards Kaza and Kantheru villages, to pass just adjacent to the lands of the Lingamanenis and M/s Heritage Foods. Care was taken to ensure that their land was minimally acquired and the Inner ring Road with a 75 metres Right of way came to lie just adjacent to these lands,” said CID in the memo. 

When the board of Directors of M/s Heritage Foods passed a resolution to buy the lands from the Lingamanenis and others, Lokesh was one of the board members as a Non-executive Director. He was coordinating this purchase, in conspiracy with his father, the A1, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, the CID alleged.

The ACB court in June had issued ad-interim attachment orders under the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1944, against the Karakatta house received as quid- pro-quo by Naidu and his family members from the Lingamanenis.

Naidu resided in the Karakatta house when he was the chief minister between 2014 and 2019.