New Delhi: In a setback to BRS working president KT Rama Rao, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain his plea against an order passed by the Telangana High Court on January 7. The high court had declined to quash an FIR lodged for alleged corruption in payments of about Rs 55 crore, some of it in foreign currency without approvals, to conduct a Formula-E race in Hyderabad during the previous regime in February 2023.
The matter came up before a bench comprising justices Bela M Trivedi and Prasanna B. Varale. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Telangana government, opposed Rao's plea before the bench. The bench expressed its unwillingness to entertain the matter and observed that an investigation could be conducted into the matter. Senior advocate Sidharth Dave, representing Rao, sought permission to withdraw the plea. The bench allowed Rao to withdraw the plea and treated the petition dismissed as withdrawn.
On December 19, 2024, the FIR was lodged at Police Station ACB, CIU under Sections 13 (1) (a) r/w 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Sections 409 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.
The plea said the high court order is liable to be set aside as its reasoning is completely absurd, erroneous and contrary to the established principles laid down by the apex court. The plea contended that the high court has completely forgotten the powers conferred under Section 528 BNSS as the allegations in the present FIR even taken at the face of it do not constitute the commission of any offence much less prima facie offence, as such the FIR ought to be quashed.
The plea said, “Because the FIR doesn’t disclose the commission of any offence much less prima facie offence as the recitals of the FIR discloses that there was contractual obligation between the parties and the money was paid to Formula E Operations Ltd., (FEO) after receiving invoices from the organizer through a legal channel of bank transfer from the bank account of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority to the bank account of Formula E Operations Ltd., (FEO) as such there is no fraudulent intention to cause loss to the State’s Exchequer as allegedly claimed by the prosecution in the First Information Report”.
The plea said the alleged tax burden of Rs 8,06,75,404 for withholding tax for the two instalments cannot be a ground to register the FIR for two reasons namely it was agreed in both the tripartite agreement (1st agreement) and also in the agreement dated October 27, 2023, ) at Clause 3.1 of payments in Schedule II that the payments shall be transferred in British pounds without deducting or liability for taxes or otherwise and also for a reason that the race never took place due to the failure of the successive government to abide by the contractual obligation and in any way the withholding of tax liability cannot be fastened upon the petitioner being the then Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development Department.
