Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed a money laundering case against BRS leader K T Rama Rao and some others in a case linked to alleged payment irregularities during the Formula-E race held in Hyderabad in February 2023, official sources said.
An Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) has been registered under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act taking cognisance of a Telangana Police Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) FIR filed on Thursday, the sources said.
The accused in the ED case are the same as those mentioned in the ACB FIR, they said.
BRS leader and party working President K T Rama Rao, the son of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, has been named as accused no 1 followed by senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar and retired bureaucrat BLN Reddy as accused no 2 and 3 in the ACB complaint.
This is the second money laundering case against the family of BRS chief Chandrashekhar Rao as his daughter K Kavitha was questioned and later arrested by the ED in the Delhi excise policy case.
Kavitha is now out on bail and the case is before the court.
The probe against 48-year-old Rama Rao, popularly known as KTR, pertains to alleged 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 last year.
He had denied any wrongdoing, saying "Where is the corruption in this? We have paid Rs 55 crore. They (Formula-E) acknowledged the payment." He added that it was a "straightforward" account.
"The HMDA (Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority) has an account in the Indian Overseas Bank and money has been transferred from that account..." KTR had said reacting to the ACB case.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy also attacked Rama Rao for these alleged irregularities, saying about Rs 500 crore was saved with the state government under him deciding against further transfer of funds to the organisers of the racing event.
Rama Rao, who was the Municipal Administration minister during the BRS regime, was instrumental in hosting the race last year in Hyderabad.
Though the race was supposed to be held in February this year as well, it was cancelled after the Congress government assumed office in December 2023.
In a linked development, the Telangana High Court on Friday directed the ACB officials not to arrest Rama Rao till December 30 as part of their investigation into the case.
High Court judge Justice Natcharaju Shravan Kumar Venkat was hearing a Lunch Motion petition moved by Rama Rao seeking to quash the FIR filed against him by the ACB.
Governor Jishnu Dev Varma had recently granted permission to the ACB to register the case against Rama Rao.
