'Political vendetta' behind case against KTR: Advocate Upender on Formula E race row

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], December 21 : Advocate Upender, representing former Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao, on Saturday accused the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of being motivated by 'political vendetta.'
The case relates to alleged financial irregularities connected to the Formula E race held in Hyderabad in February 2023. Upender underlined that the Telangana government organised the race to create employment and attract investment, and reduce environmental pollution.
He also pointed out that after the first race, the sponsors backed out, leaving the government to take responsibility for the funds to ensure the event's success. Further, the advocate slammed the registration of the FIR, despite the long delay since the new government took office.
"The Telangana government had organised the Formula E race to provide employment to the students, bring investments to Telangana and reduce environmental pollution. This is a world-famous event that happens in various countries. With the aim of organising such an event in Telangana, KTR, who was the minister at that time, made an agreement. As per the agreement, one race was organised here wonderfully. However, when it came to the second race, the sponsors backed out as it was not working out for them," Upender said.
KTR's advocate added that the minister took responsibility for the funds."So, KTR, as a minister with the intention that the fame of Telangana should not be tarnished, said that the Telangana government would take responsibility of the funds and even gave some money to them (Formula E organisers) in this regard. Based on this, ACB got a complaint on the 18th (December) and registered an FIR on the 19th (December). When any complaint is received, the investigating officer should first do some investigation into which sections can be booked. However, it was all done in a single day," he said.
"Also, it has been 1 year since the new government was formed. What is the reason for this inordinate delay for this case? So, there is a political vendetta in this case. Taking all this into consideration, the Court has given orders to not arrest KTR for the next 10 days. It also gave the prosecutor 1 week's time to file a counter. They said that they would do some investigation during this 1 week and file a counter," Upender added.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against former minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) and others over alleged financial irregularities linked to the Formula E race held in Hyderabad in February 2023.
This comes after the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered a First Information Report (FIR) against BRS leader KTR and others in the Formula-E funding case.
The Telangana ACB on Thursday registered a case against BRS working president and MLA Rama Rao over alleged payments, some of it in foreign currency without approvals, to conduct the Formula E race in Hyderabad during the previous regime.
Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma recently approved the registration of a case against KTR regarding the matter. The FIR lists KTR as the primary accused, with senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar and retired bureaucrat BLN Reddy named as the second and third accused, respectively.
The case was filed under applicable sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, along with provisions of the IPC related to criminal breach of trust and conspiracy.