High Court: What’s vigilance department doing on Vanpic?

The High Court on Wednesday asked what the vigilance department was doing when lands (about 4,000 acres as alleged by the CBI) allotted for the Vanpic project were sold by some of the accused involved in the Vanpic case.

During hearing on the bail petition of former minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana Rao, justice B Seshasayana Reddy asked the CBI counsel about the deviations in the agreement on the project.

CBI counsel P Kesava Rao said there were several violations. As against the requirement of 4,000 acres for Vanpic Ports Pvt Ltd, about 28,000 acres of land was acquired for it but it went into the hands of another company, Vanpic Projects Pvt Ltd. Despite his knowledge of it, the former minister had intentionally not disclosed it at cabinet meetings as he had conspired with the other accused in the Vanpic scam that caused wrongful gains to some private individuals.

Besides, the other accused, Nimmagadda Prasad and others, had sold about 1,600 acres and amassed about Rs 450 crore. The arguments will continue on Thursday.