The scam-hit A.P. State Minorities Finance Corporation (APSMFC) found itself in the eye of another storm on Friday, when a senior IAS officer scuttled the alleged attempts of the corporation’s Managing Director Ilyas Rizvi to cart away some important files.
Interestingly, it was none other than the Minorities Welfare secretary, M. Dana Kishore, who got wind of Mr. Rizvi’s alleged attempts and stalled him, literally, even as the corporation employees and hundreds of visitors to Haj House watched the drama unfold.
It was only on Thursday that the CID arrested four persons in connection with siphoning of Rs. 55.47 crore from a bank. Following the arrests, the government transferred Mr. Rizvi and suspended an accountant Mr. Ahmed Ali and General Manager Mr. Liyaqat Ali.
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Though Mr. Dana Kishore officially maintained that he did not know anything about the attempt to shift important files, many who watched the drama unfold recalled that the Minorities Welfare secretary walked into the Haj House compound after tipping off some Urdu journalists about the attempt to shift the files.
Media personnel mobbed Mr. Rizvi’s car in the parking lot and the secretary ordered the driver to open the boot and found some files.
Later, he rushed to the fifth floor to confront Mr. Rizvi who pleaded innocence. As an enraged Mr. Dana Kishore pulled up the MD, the latter went away through another staircase and left the premises on a scooter.
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Media personnel claimed that they followed him up to Mehdipatnam, where he took another car and went away.
Meanwhile, the CID intensified its investigation and raided a couple of educational institutions to see how scholarships were being claimed from the corporation. The swindled amount was meant to be given to minority students.
Rizvi shunted
Mr. Ilyas Rizvi, Managing Director of AP Minorities Finance Corporation has been transferred but given no posting.
The decision was taken by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy following the investigation of CID into the affairs of the Corporation.
Probe sought
Meanwhile, CPI State secretary K.Narayana here on Friday demanded a comprehensive inquiry into the Rs.55 crore fraud in the State Minorities Finance Corporation. He also demanded that the government take the alleged embezzlement seriously and attach the properties of the accused.