Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao, as Infrastructure and Investments Minister, misled the Cabinet by stating that 24,000 acres of land given to Vanpic would be returned to the government after completion of the industrial corridor for Vadarevu and Nizampatnam ports.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) levelled this charge in the court in its counter to the bail petition filed by the ex-Minister who was arrested in the assets case against Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.
The investigating agency said Rao forwarded to the Cabinet a memorandum for approval which envisaged that all assets, including land, under Vanpic (Vadarevu and Nizampatnam ports and industrial corridor) project would be transferred back to the government after expiry of the concession period granted to the developer company, with Nimmagadda Prasad as Indian partner.
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On the other hand, the concession agreement signed with Prasad, which was also sent to the Cabinet, provided for retention of 24,000 acres of land by the concessionaire. The Minister was responsible for placing diametrically conflicting proposals before the Council of Ministers. And that too when Secretariat instructions stipulated that the Cabinet memorandum should contain all salient and relevant facts with “sufficient precision”, the CBI said.
The agency also blamed Rao for withholding information on many crucial requirements of the project, including total extent of land, which resulted in loss to the government and benefit to concessionaire. He did not take any remedial action when the violations went to the notice of his department, it said.
Rao's counsel C. Padmanabha Reddy argued that not a single acre of land was transferred to Vanpic till now as the land acquisition was still going on. He said there was no way that the 24,000 acres for industrial corridor would be transferred to the government after the concession period because permanent industries would come up there.
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Mr. Reddy sought to know the liability of his client as the Cabinet was collectively responsible for all executive orders issued by the government. The responsibility was also on the Council of Ministers because the business rules of the government stipulated that any alienation of land costing over Rs.2 lakh had to be done with its approval. An individual Minister could neither stop nor make a recommendation to the Cabinet.
The collective decision of Cabinet could never be a matter of criminal litigation, he added.