The apex court bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and PB Varale refused to intervene in the orders issued by the high court and opined that a comprehensive investigation could be conducted into the case.
Published Jan 15, 2025 | 1:44 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 15, 2025 | 6:21 PM
File photo of KTR. (KTRTRS/Facebook)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, 15 January, rejected BRS Working President and former Telangana minister KT Rama Rao’s petition seeking to quash the FIR filed against him by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the Formula E Race case.
The apex court said it could not interfere in the case at this stage. The Sircilla MLA, popularly known as KTR, moved the petition after the Telangana High Court dismissed his plea.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared before the court on behalf of the Telangana government, while Senior Advocate Siddartha Dave represented KTR.
The apex court bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and PB Varale refused to intervene in the orders issued by the high court and opined that a comprehensive investigation could be conducted into the case.
When Dave appealed to allow him to withdraw the case with liberty to appear before the high court and Rohatgi opposed the liberty, the court dismissed the petition as withdrawn.
The high court had held that a prima facie case had been made against KTR and made it clear that it would not be proper on its part to thwart the investigation into the allegations at this stage.
The ACB had on 9 January questioned the former Telangana Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) minister about his involvement in the alleged irregularities in the Formula E race case.
KTR alleged that the ACB’s inquiries were merely 40 different rephrasings of the same four questions possibly handed by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
He further asserted that the bureau lacked concrete evidence of corruption, and described the case as frivolous.
KTR, who figures as the accused number one in the case, is accused of having facilitated payment of ₹46 crore (excluding taxes) in foreign exchange to London-based Formula E Operations in October 2023, for the conduct of the second edition (season 10) of the race in Hyderabad in February 2024 which, anyway, did not take place.
Dave, when he appeared for KTR in the high court, had maintained that the sections under which his client had been booked did not apply to him.
The ACB could not establish any corruption angle in the case, he said and pointed out that KTR had not benefited personally from the deal in any way.
“There was no corruption element in the case,” he pointed out.
The senior advocate said that the then municipal administration principal secretary and Formula E Operations were the ones who signed the agreement.
He added that it was remiss of the ACB to include KTR’s name in the FIR, even though was clean and was not a beneficiary of the money paid out to Formula E operations. Advocate General (AG) A Sudarshan Reddy, appearing for the ACB, said that payment was made to Formula E Operations even before signing an agreement.
Admitting that the case was still in the early stages, he hoped that the ACB would be able to ferret out the truth and the extent of involvement of the accused in the case as the investigation progressed.
The AG submitted to the court that the ACB had obtained prior consent from the Telangana Governor to register the case against KTR in the case. He argued that KTR as minister of the Municipal Administration Department had to take responsibility as officers work under his supervision.
He argued that KTR had given a go-by to all rules in force that govern the payment of money in foreign exchange to a company based out of London.
